LOS ANGELES – The University of California Los Angeles’ newest student club will focus on helping illegal immigrant students enroll in medical school and find the financial resources to become physicians.

UCLA administrators approved the new organization, MedDreamers, Aug. 11. The student-run group looks to financially support any undocumented student who wishes to attend medical school and to advocate for policy changes making easier to do so, reports the student newspaper, the Daily Bruin.

“With MedDreamers, we want to level the playing field,” said Marcela Zhou, an undocumented Chinese medical student at UCLA who immigrated illegally through Mexico. “We don’t want to have the stressors of figuring out how to get loans and finding a co-signer, on top of the stresses of going through medical school. We aren’t trying to treat our cases as special; we are just trying to make things fair.”

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Medical student Allen Rodriguez, a MedDreamers founding member, told the site it’s hard being an immigrant, but California’s laws are about as good as it gets. There, illegal immigrants can obtain a state license to practice medicine, unlike most states.

Rodriguez said federal student loans aren’t available to students in the country illegally, but he hopes to change that too by connecting with health care professionals to lobby for policy changes.

“In California, we’re quite progressive,” Zhou told the Daily Bruin. “But across the country, undocumented people face quite a few barriers: In California, we can apply for a license to practice but in many other states, there is not the same support.”

The MedDreamers At UCLA Facebook page shows the group held its inaugural fundraiser at The Glendon Bar & Kitchen in Los Angeles Aug. 16, and hosted a silent auction for Manny Pacquiao autographed boxing gloves and a football signed by the UCLA team. Tickets to the Los Angeles luncheon were $60, with the proceeds going “directly to a scholarship fund for undocumented medical students at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA,” according to the group’s website.

MedDreamers first assembled in February and has collected more than $10,000 toward its first-year goal of $50,000.

“Doctors, physicians and other faculty members from all across campus have donated money, Rodriguez said,” according to the Daily Bruin.

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Zhou told the news site she hopes MedDreamers will encourage illegal immigrant students to open up about their status as a means of addressing “injustices.”

“Growing up in Mexico, I always felt a bit different – I experienced a bit of an identity crisis because I didn’t know where I fit in,” she said. “Over the years, I have always had pleasant experiences sharing my story with others: I think by sharing, it’s a way to help educate and encourage others to break down some of the injustices.”