Our Story

Dreamers Thrive is a local 501 C-3 non-profit organization established in 2022 and

officially launched in 2023.

Founded by Kaylhan Garcia, a promising student from GISD whose personal

journey navigating the complex world of higher education prompted her desire to

seek opportunities to help fund her education. As a daughter of immigrants, her

significant lived experiences represented many adverse challenges but undeniably

served to solidify her passion to help others students like herself. Through much

persistence, her fond memories helping her mother on many community

outreach events, she ultimately conceptualized her aspirations into for the

formation of her own non-profit organization, Dreamers Thrive. Her mission, “To

help empower, mobilize, and educate other Latino students like herself as well as

their families pursue their own higher education dreams.”

Kaylhan was a dedicated scholar roaming through the halls of her beloved Ball

High School, leading her school’s marching band during her last year of high

school, taking advance placement classes, volunteering at various community

projects, and working part time as a service champion at her local Taco Bell.

Throughout her short-lived high school experience (Covid Pandemic, 2020) she

managed to push through the virtual learning environment and considered early

graduation as an option. She ultimately amassed not only enough credits to

graduate high school one year earlier than anticipated but also earned 24 college

credits from Galveston College and became a certified nurse assistant through

Ball High’s Career Connect Program. In Spring 2021, she was awarded an almost

full-ride tuition to the university of her dreams, American University in

Washington D.C.

In addition to receiving her university’s merit and need based awards, Kaylhan has

been awarded the Taco Bell Foundation, Live Mas Scholarship three times.

In 2022, Kaylhan Garcia was recognized and awarded along other community

change makers around the U.S by the Bad Bunny and the Pepsi Deja Tu Huella

Fund to help further their passion and commitment to serving and impacting their

communities.

In April 2023, she did just that by launching Dreamer’s Thrive first Latinos in

Higher Education summit in Galveston, Texas.

She along with local and even out of state promising Latino students as well as

leading business and academia professionals took the stage to share their

powerful stories and speak candidly and openly about the Latino experience in

our community. Well over 200 people in attendance supporting our official launch

and we could not be more grateful yet cognizant that our story is just beginning.