PHOENIX, Ariz. — After years burying her college diploma in a box, Angelica Gaona felt she could proudly display it after she was granted protection from deportation and given permission to work through an Obama administration program now at risk.

Wednesday marks four years since President Barack Obama announced the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

But the lives of more than 728,000 undocumented young immigrants — often referred to as Dreamers — that the federal government says have been approved for DACA are in a fragile state.

The prospects of Donald Trump as president have many facing the possibility he could end DACA’s protection from deportation and work permits that has allowed young people like Gaona to put educations to use, find good jobs, build families and build futures.

“It does cross my mind how many people would be affected if the program were to go away,” Gaona told NBC News Latino.

Gaona has been working as a teacher in Arizona while pursuing a master’s degree for the past two years.

She came to the United States from Mexico when she was 7 years old. Her undocumented status had prevented her from putting to use the bachelor’s degree in communication studies that she earned from Arizona State University in 2009. Instead, she had been working as a babysitter and cleaning houses.