Grad School Support

Kevin Graves is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

USC Rossier School of Education

Hi all,

I'm in the home stretch of my 2nd semester at USC. The Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) program here is challenging yet quite rewarding. I'm getting the best training to become a therapist, and I'm lucky to have supportive cohort members, faculty, and staff.

Unfortunately, I am struggling to meet living expenses. Financial aid increases (such as my Norman Topping Fellowship aid) only decrease the amount in loans I can take out—so it breaks even, and is still not enough. Federal loans do not allow for car expenses, and I need a car for my program (e.g., our practicum/field placement).

I am launching this campaign to ask you to please pitch in what you can—it will help tide me over until our next semester aid is disbursed in late January.

Here are the itemized expenses:

$1126 – Car payments (Dec & Jan; Kia Forte)
$400 – Car insurance (Dec & Jan)
$303 – Car registration/plates
$1300 – Rent (Jan)
$171 – Misc (e.g., gas, food, etc.)

A little more about what I've been up to here:

Norman Topping Fellowship
I'm the first MFT student to be a Norman Topping fellow! I'm very proud—it's the nation's only student-funded, student-administered scholarship fund for first-generation and low-income students.

———That's me in the back:———

My Topping Family

Fight on! ✌(the school motto and hand gesture)

20th Annual Safe Halloween event for local community families

Communing with nature at the summer retreat

AHEC Community Health Scholars Program
As a supplement to school, I am being certified in community health as an AHEC scholar.

Mental Health First Aid training day

Kappa Delta Pi
I was recently inducted into the international honor society for education, Kappa Delta Pi .

Smiles at the Kappa Delta Pi induction ceremony

My Bio-Discography
As part of our Counseling Through the Lifespan course, we created a presentation on our family life. I did mine as a walk through my decades with music. In case you're at all interested, here's a link to the Prezi. (Hint: click on each music record within the decades to discover more).