A small private liberal arts college in western Massachusetts has announced the establishment of a scholarship fund dedicated to helping undocumented students get degrees.

The scholarship will provide more than $25,000 each year to help an undocumented immigrant pay for the $43,000-plus tuition at Hampshire College in Amherst. At current funding levels, the endowment will help support one student’s studies at the college every four years, said college spokeswoman Elaine Thomas.

A professor was inspired to create the fund following a student’s senior project on the Development, Relief, Education for Alien Minors act, which would allow some undocumented immigrants to achieve U.S. citizenship by getting college degrees or by serving in the military. The legislation has yet to pass in Congress.

Hampshire alumni, graduating students, parents and other donors have given more than $300,000 since the spring to fund the scholarship and an endowment to sustain it.

There are an estimated 65,000 undocumented immigrants who graduate from American high schools each year. Of those, an estimated 5 to 10 percent apply for college.

Read more at the Huffington Post