Donate to help get Centauri his psychology degree

My name is Centauri Wilson and I'm a student at the University of Oregon in the USA!

I'm 21 years old, LGBTQ+, and I'm majoring in cultural anthropology and psychology.

In my free time, I enjoy drawing, reading, advocacy, and working with children. I am employed part-time at a local preschool where I work with kids ages 1 year - 5 years, and I enjoy it so much!

Overall, I consider myself lucky. Not the luckiest in the world, but probably more lucky than unlucky. I have the option to stay with my parents, I go to a university that isn't the most expensive in the world, I have a good academic standing, and I have strong ambitions about what I want to accomplish at school. As odd as it may sound, I feel like I thrive in an academic environment and I've always enjoyed learning and attending school.

Going to university and graduating was something I wanted since I was 10 years old.

I sacrificed sleepovers and hanging out with friends on the weekends throughout high school, I sacrificed my mental health, my physical health. I struggled to eat enough and got an average of four hours of sleep a night in my senior year because of how many hours each day I spent on my classes.

Through my AP exams, I earned a total of 16 credits, more than a full term of college credits. I woke up at 6:00 AM on summer Saturdays every year because I knew getting those AP credits would make it easier to pay for college in the long run.

This dream became a lot more uncertain when I grew up and learned how expensive school is. My family has never made a lot, we've had many medical bills over the years, and only one of my parents has been able to have consistent work due to disability and medical reasons. I learned that people are less likely to finish college if their parents never attended/finished college. Additionally, I am an LGBTQ+ person with mental health struggles like depression, anxiety, trauma, and ADHD. Graduation is less likely for LGBTQ+ folks, less likely for people who struggle with mental health, less likely for people with learning disabilities, less likely for people from low-income families. The odds are against me.

I knew that those sacrifices I made would help me fight those odds. So I continued to make them.

I like to think hard work can accomplish many, many things. And it can! But I'm not naive. Hard work cannot accomplish anything and everything. I worked hard and got recognition, but I still lack funds.

I've started my third year this past fall. I'll probably need to attend school for 1 more year after this one, so that's about 6 more terms, including Summer.

The total cost will be about $25k, about $4k for each term.

I've decided to set up this go-fund-me because this amount is terrifying to me. Scholarships I relied on in the past that helped me significantly aren't available to me for upcoming years because they address the neediest first and then run out. I was lucky to get the scholarships in the past, but I missed out on this upcoming year.

Anything at all helps, even just $1.00. If you can't donate, please consider sharing this around. Anything helps!

If you happen to donate, thank you so, so much. I sincerely appreciate anything that comes of this. I mean it when I say you're funding my dream.