Help me send Cameron to college

Hello, my name is Samantha and I am fundraising to help send my daughter, Cameron, to college.

As a family, we have had a rough few years since the passing of my middle daughter, but none more than Cameron. She has overcome so many obstacles to become the successful young lady she is today, from losing her sister to her own mental health struggles and so many more not mentioned.

In May of this year, Cameron will graduate from Early College High School with her hs diploma and Associates degree. She has already been accepted to her #1 pick for the remaining 2 years of her Bachelors degree, and I need your help to get her there.

After she receives her BS, she will continue to get her Masters degree, and finally on to a doctorate program. Her end goal is to become a child psychologist, so she can help other children that are unable to help themselves. I would like more than anything to help her reach the goal with as little to no debt as possible. This child deserves everything good in this world.

FYI: We have already applied for financial aid, but the school is already asking for a $400 deposit to secure her acceptance. Money collected will go to pay this deposit and many other college-related expenses such as books, residency, items for dorm, and all other general college costs.

There's so much more I could say about Cameron but instead, I will let you read the essay she sent in with her college applications. Maybe you will see a sliver of what I have been blessed to see for 19 years.

Prompt: The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you and what did you learn from this experience?

In 2019 I lost my sister to suicide, two weeks before I had to start my freshman year of high school. Due to this event, I have been diagnosed with PTSD as well as a few other mental illnesses.

During my senior year of high school, I began to have a PTSD manic episode that started in October and did not end until halfway through the second semester of school. I, for the first time, failed classes and had to be withdrawn from others because of this episode. As someone who prided themselves on having good grades and being able to stay mostly above water, it was concerning to find myself drowning in such a way.

After talking with my therapist, mother, teachers, and principal I made the choice to go to the hospital for extra help, and was allotted time without homework to focus on my well-being. After my visit, I took longer to stay out of school until I felt as though I was back to some sense of normality.

When returning to school I had not been fully thinking of the effect that my absence would have on my grades and my position in the program I am attending, I go to an early college, meaning I am dual enrolled in both high school and college.

I quickly became overwhelmed with the amount of work needed to stay on track for my course load, and immediately fell into a depressive episode. This made it harder for me to do the catch-up work that was needed to pass the first semester classes and started my second semester off so poorly that I could not get my grades up in time.

The last of these major setbacks was during the summer semester which I had agreed to try and complete to get some of the courses I needed in order to still graduate with both degrees. I was finally in a better space mentally from the end of the second semester until part of the way through the summer semester when I was tasked with taking care of my dying dog, and then told we would soon be without a house and needed to begin looking for somewhere else to live. I ended the summer semester similar to how my senior year ended, withdrawing from and failing most of the courses.

This all was a major setback in the goals that I have held for myself since I was a child. I have always known that I wanted to be a child psychologist so that I can help those who can not help themselves. My grades have also always been very important to me and going from a 4.02 high school and 3.8 college GPA to a 3.23 high school and a 2.2 college GPA was something that I would never have expected to happen to me, especially not over what felt like such a short period.

Since these obstacles have been thrown my way I have been fighting every day to reach my goals. I have been doing therapy weekly, psychologist appointments monthly, and staying on campus with classmates to finish all of my assignments and get the courses I need. I worked very closely with my previous college advisor to create my course schedule for this school year so that I can graduate on time and achieve all of my goals. I have learned so much from last year and I have done nothing but grow since then. I have fought to be allowed to take more classes than they would normally allow because I am confident in my abilities to overcome anything that can be thrown at me.