Breaking the Statistics:Tania Grad School Tuition

My name is Tania Parker and I am a single mom of 4 and 11-year-old boys, Josiah and Anthony, who have special needs. I also am a survivor of being a homeless mom. In my life, I have overcome obstacle after obstacle to achieve my dreams and I need your support. I recently graduated from California State University Northridge on May 21st, 2023, Magna Cum Lauďe (3.84 GPA), with my BA in Child and Adolescent Development with an emphasis on Applied Developmental Science. I was accepted into CSUNs Educational Psychology and Counseling Department for their Early Childhood Educational Psychology MA program. I start in Fall 2023, which is August 28th, 2023.

 

All of this is wonderful, unfortunately, I was under the impression I had to pay my tuition in full by August 25th, but my school sent me an email July 17th, informing me it must be paid in full by Monday, July 24th. Failure to pay tuition in full ($5,100) by this date will disenroll me from my graduate program and classes, which will cause me to lose my housing on campus and lead me and my boys to be homeless again. It will also take away the CSU Trustees Award for Outstanding Achievement scholarship I am expecting in September to cover the costs of my tuition. Because of the many obstacles I had to overcome in my past getting employment has been complicated which is why I am in this situation. I am looking to solve this problem in two ways; one I am desperately looking for employment to create long-term financial security, and second I created a Go Fund Me on the advice of many and greatly need any help possible so my family can stay in our home and I can continue to be enrolled in school and thrive. 

If you feel inspired to help or share please donate at 

https://gofund.me/4ead1acd (https://gofund.me/4ead1acd)

Or Zelle [phone redacted] 

Or Cash app $Taniaparker88 

Or Venmo @Tania-Parker-5

Even sharing this post helps tremendously and I truly appreciate all your help, support, and generosity. Investing in me equates to investing in our future, changing the trajectory for my two boys and our future generations who I will be working with to help ma

ke the world a better place.

I am including my statement that I wrote to get into CSUNs Early Childhood Educational Psychology graduate program so you can get a more detailed description of who I am, the adversities I've overcome, my career and educational goals, my community service/involvement, my accomplishments, awards, certificates, certifications, and scholarships, and why I chose to pursue my MA in CSUNs Educational Psychology and Counseling Department for their Early Childhood Educational Psychology program. Again, thank you all so much for your support, help, and generosity.......

My name is Tania Parker, and I am a 32-year-old single mother of two beautiful boys, Josiah four, and Anthony 11, who both have special needs. Currently, my job is being a full-time single mother, a full-time advocate for my boys who have Autism and ADHD, and a full-time college student at California State University Northridge. I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a cumulative GPA of 3.84. Recently, I was nominated by the Child and Adolescent Development (CADV) faculty for the Exceptional Senior Award and I was one of four winners, out of 11,400, for the Outstanding Graduating Senior Award. I am conhave conferred in Child and Adolescent Development with an emphasis on Applied Developmental Science on May 21, 2023. Ever since the age of four, I tragically lost my childhood and had to take on several roles that the average child never has to experience. Some of these roles include being a caretaker, supporter, leadleader advocate for my dad, sister, and various others. Growing up I endured many adversities and traumas that most do not experience in a lifetime. However, due to these experexperiences,ve always known that I wanted to work with children and our most vulnerable populations, to protect and prevent them from having to experience trauma, adversities, and hardships, as I once did. Also, I want to help educate children and their famifamilies to be the advocate for these children that I never had. Coming from a singlsingle-parentehold, my dad raised two girls on his own. My older sister, who suffers from drug drug-inducedzophrenia and has been homeless for 20 years, was my biggest abuser. None Nonethelessas aware of the horrific traumas that my sister had endured. I took on the role of being her caretaker, became her power of attorney, and have been advocating for her mental health and housing insecurities. My sister would have violent outbursts where no one could calm her down, but due to my countless experiences dealing with crisis,crisese always had a way to connect with people and help bring them back to reality. The most important thing for my sister, my first sons’ father, and those alike, is to be seen and treated as a human being with dignity, respect, humanity, empathy, compassion, equity, equality, and inclusion. I am extremely passionate about advocating for the homeless community, children with special needs, individuals with disabilities, the foster youth community, incarcerated folks, and other underrepresented, marginalized communities that society disregards and doesn’t give them the respect they deserve.

My past lived experiences and my present challenges have influenced my decision to pursue a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Educational Psychology through the Educational Psychology and Counseling Department. The EPC-ECE program will arm me with the skill sets needed to fulfill my career goals and allow me to utilize my lived experiential knowledge positively to help others, especially our younger and more vulnerable populations. Early intervention is critical to the success of all children and even more so, for those with special needs. I have firsthand seen the benefits of utilizing early intervention services and the amelioration it provided my children. Unfortunately, too many children fall through the cracks due to la lack of parental education, stigmas behind mental health, disabilities, and the lack of funding to enact policies to bridge the gap in early intervention. As a mother, witnessing the benefit of services and observing gaps in the system, I want to pursue a career to help bridge that gap and make obtaining resources, services, and support more accessible to all. I wanted to be a trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapist, but I am interested in advocacy and service work to help children of all abilities reach their full potential, reach their best quality of life, and to maximize their success. It is also imperative that I work with foster youth, as well as incarcerated and homeless populations because I was a part of all these communities, and it is crucial that I give back and partake in policy changes that will put an end to homelessness and mass incarceration. Eventually, after I complete the graduate program I would like to obtain my Ph.D. in Social Work and become a licensed clinical social worker.

I am starting the Educational Psychology and Counseling department’s Early Childhood Education program in Fall 2023 because the program states it puts an “emphasis on valuing diversity, leadership, advocacy, equity, inclusion, and social justice,” (EPC-ECE). These are the values and characteristics I uphold and utilize daily and want to take into my career. I know this program will help me build upon these skills and gain further knowledge, so I can be successful in the field and change lives. The curriculum takes a holistic approach, covering child development, leadership, advocacy, policy and legislative work, administration, collaboration, and research, which will provide me with the skill set needed to succeed. The professors in this program are passionate, knowledgeable, and compassionate about this subject, which will ensure my success in this program. Coming from severe poverty and still being in poverty, I have dedicated my life to my education because I know education is the key to freedom and the answer to breaking the cycle of poverty within my family and our communities. This is why I am applying to EPC-ECE to gain skills, knowledge, and resources that I can share with children and their families to help bridge the gap in the educational system and ensure everyone from all backgrounds and walks of life has equal opportunities to succeed, reach their full potential, ano reach their best quality of life.

I have not worked in the field of child and adolescent development professionally, but I have gained countless experiences being a single mother and through volunteer work. I am certified in youth mental health and first aid, BLS CPR (Adult/Child/Infant), and Healthcare Provider CPR. I have volunteered my time cleaning at an elementary school and volunteered at Woodland Hills Public Library. Also, I volunteered at Northridge Care Center for a year as their activity director. Recently, I volunteered at CSUN with the Resilient Scholars Program which I am a part of, to speak on a student panel for the San Fernando Valley Scholars Network Wellness Event and Bakersfield Community College Next Up event. We spoke to other former foster youth who are attending community college and shared our experience to encourage them to transfer to a four-year university, such as CSUN. I volunteered with Rise Free through a two-month stipend program as a Foster Youth Advocacy Fellow where I interviewed foster youth and submitted their stories to the senate and legislature to advocate for free tuition, low-cost/free textbooks, and basic needs essentials, such as food and housing insecurities. During my time at CSUN, I have been on the Dean’s list each semester, received the DRES Yoni Oren Low-vision scholarship, Soroptimist “Live Your Dreams Award,” VCCCD Women’s United Award in 2021/2022, was just invited into Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and just became a member in March. I have worked extremely hard to give my children and myself a better life than what I had, I know this program will be the final piece to help me get to where I need to go and achieve success.

My personal lived experiences and advocacy work has allowed me to work with many diverse and minority populations, such as homeless populations, marginalized communities, people of color, incarcerated people, and those of varying abilities (ex. visually impaired, hard of hearing, ASD, ID), foster youth, and those coming from severe poverty. My experiences enable me to relate and bond with all communities, cultures, and ethnicities, which allows for a trusting, unbiased, non-judgmental relationship with future clients, children, and families. I come from a diverse family and background that opened my heart to all communities regardless of ethnicity, color, ability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, or race. I am determined to learn and excel in this program and my career so I can fulfulfill my life’s mission to positively impact the lives of underrepresented communities and open the eyes of society to the beauty in people from these communities and bring back people’s humanity. I know that investing in me equates to investing in our future and the future of the next generations.

...END OF PERSONAL STATEMENT...

I also got into USC for their MSW program, however, USC is 86,000 as opposed to 5,100$ for this semester. I am a full-time single mother and permanently disabled/visually impaired. A week after graduating on June 1st, my credit card companies one by one took all my available credit and dropped my credit limits leaving me with less than $100 even though I've never missed a payment and I've always paid above the minimum payment. I have always had my credit cards to rely on and now I don't. My school emailed me the morning of July 17th, saying I have until July 24th to pay my tuition in full or they'll disenroll me from my graduate program. If that happens my sons and I would lose our housing since we live in student family housing on campus. I have been going to 1-5 job interviews every week and I thought I had a month to come up with tuition and now the email this morning stated otherwise, as did the man I spoke with once I called. They will not wait to see if financial aid will cover any of graduate school or to see if my scholarships will hit the system, but none of that gets released until September a month after I start. I do not want to give up on my dreams or not be able to continue graduate school due to financial issues because they won't give me more time to come up with tuition. Any help at all toward my tuition would be immensely appreciated and helpful. Thank you for your time and consideration to help me achieve my dreams of obtaining my MA and hopefully next step my Ph.D. or Doctorate of Social Work. Thank you all. I am not active on many social media sites so if you could please share this with as many people as possible it'd help me get to my goal hopefully by Monday, July 24th. Thank you again for all your help and support.