A couple of students have bravely “come out” to their community:

Deivid Ribeiro aimed for the stars.

He kept a nearly 4.0 grade point average at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School and at Cape Cod Community College, where he got his associate’s degree.

But he wanted to attend a four-year college full time, to major in physics, the next step toward his dream of becoming an astronaut.

Instead, Ribeiro, now 21, works full time and studies part time at UMass Dartmouth, where he can only afford the $2,700 that buys about a half-dozen credits worth of classes.

The problem: Ribeiro’s parents brought him to the United States from Brazil when he was 9. Like many immigrant students who do not have a green card or citizenship, he cannot take out college loans.

“I’ve always paid taxes,” he said recently. “I have all the documents except the big one that matters.”

To read the rest, visit the Cape Code Times site here.