Alejandro's College Tuiton, Fall Semester

(This is me with my Freshmen Learning community at Georgia State. My friends always ask me why I look angry in pictures lol)

My name is Alejandro Gorricho. First, thank you for being willing to hear my story. Regardless of your decision, I truly appreciate it. I am trying to raise funds in order to re-register back into Georgia State University for this Fall semester and save my spot in University Housing.

About a year and a half ago, my dad lost his job. A period of extreme uncertainty began for my family. My parents were eating quickly into their life savings while my dad was looking for a job.  They had to withdraw me and my siblings from private school to cut down costs, but that wasn't enough:  They didn't even know how were they going to feed us within 2 months. That is when my uncle, who lives in Atlanta, made us an offer. He would harbor me for my senior year taking care of my living costs and enabling me to study at the local high school.  My parents knew this could be my chance of going to a USA college. However, the thought of immediately moving to another country and leaving behind my family and friends paralyzed me, and I entered a period of shock. Despite this, my future in my own home was super uncertain, so we accepted his offer.

It was some time before I adjusted to the USA. My mind was still back with my old classmates who were about to graduate without me. I also missed the warmth of the family I grew up with. I felt lonely and desolate as I had never felt before. However, in time, I got used to my new environment. I adjusted to my foster family and worked on making the most out of my new high school.  I kept good grades and got involved in the school. Since not all of my grades were converted into the USA's system, my GPA went down. Regardless, I worked in getting accepted into a college. I was joyful when I opened Georgia State's acceptance letter, I had achieved what I had set out to do in the USA.

I got a job at Mcdonalds in order to start saving for college. I also knew my uncle was not harboring me forever, so I had to be ready to live on my own.  I also focused on keeping good grades in order to apply to scholarships like Georgia Hope (which I had applied to as any other student in that high school like our counselors recommended us). McDonald's is a heavy job so it was challenging trying to balance between the two, while also looking for college financing, while also preparing to live independently. I was almost overwhelmed, at which point my parents offered me to move back with them. While their financials were no longer critical, they were still unstable, so I rejected this offer. It would be cruel of me to put them under more strain than the one they were facing. Therefore, I decided to pursue my dreams of studying political science completely by myself in the USA.

I moved out of my Uncle's Home and moved to Georgia State University. It was exciting to meet hundreds of new people I had never met before. I love how open and relax the college environment is. I am also super motivated in earning my Political Science in order to go into my dream career in politics. I have even joined the Panther Leap Program to become a future community leader. Since Georgia State classified me as Out-of-State my tuition and housing bill is 19,251$ for the Fall 2019 semester. To finance my tuition I used Pell Grant, I applied for  Federal Student Loans and cashed in my job's tuition assistance, which is all worth 8323$ combined. Since I have a 3.2 GPA I satisfied the 3.0 Georgia Hope GPA requirements, so I was waiting to get the scholarship to pay the remaining balance.  However, 2 weeks into my studies, I was told my application was rejected. I did not fulfill the specific tax residency requirements for the scholarships. Absolutely no one clarified this specific requirement to me until this moment, so I went into a panic looking for financing. However, I have not been able to pay the remaining balance yet, so I was dropped from classes. I have until October 7 of this year to re-register, but for that, I need to pay the remaining 11,000$. If not, I will be dropped out of college and kicked from the housing. 

I have applied to 30 or so scholarships, but I don't know if they will come in time, or if I will even be accepted.  I can apply to emergency funds, but that is only 500$. My parents are willing to support me, but the can only give 1000$. That is why I am only asking for 9500$, which would go directly into paying off my remaining tuition bill. I have already used my work savings for all other expenses, and what I have currently is just enough to sustain myself. I tried applying for private student loans, but I got rejected from every single one since I don't have any cosigners in the USA to apply with. I cannot ask my uncle for help since he feels he has done more than enough for me, I completely agree with him in that. I am desperate fighting alone in this country and I don't know where else to turn. I really want to enjoy this experience after the chaotic mess my life has been the last couple of years. I don't want to lose the wonderful people I have met here. I have no idea where I am even going to live out of campus.  I do not want to lose this small moment of happiness I have found at college. I hope I can enjoy college with my friends and become a leader for my community, whether it is at school or at the Georgia Capitol with my Political science degree.

 Regardless of what happens to me, I want to thank you for taking the time to read my story. Even if you don't donate, I want to ask you to please share my story. At this point, any small contribution will be of massive help.

Thank you, 

Alejandro Gorricho