Help Autumn Return to Law School

Hi, I'm Autumn Hill and I'm fundraising for my visa and flight to go back to law school in London. My course starts Monday, September 26 and your help would make a huge difference in my life and my ability to continue my education.

As a lawyer, I want to do fashion law through international labor and employment law. I'm very passionate about garment workers' rights, livable wages, and the many human rights violations present in the fashion industry. I didn't know anything about fast fashion until I went to grad school at Parsons School of Design (2018-2020); I was heartbroken by the ongoing abuse, poverty, and horror stories fashion has created so I started looking for career paths that dealt with these things firsthand. The only problem is that doesn't exist: it's either working on the inside trying to improve a brand bit by bit or being on the outside raising awareness. I felt like neither of these paths were at the heart of what I wanted to do and the longer I was unemployed during the pandemic, the more I cared about doing work that makes a difference. I decided to stop trying to work for sustainable brands and non-profits and do what I was meant to do: represent those on the frontlines and help women fight for justice.

I moved to London, UK for law school in September 2021 and it's been equally amazing and daunting. I did not anticipate being an Elle Woods-like standout in my program but it makes sense as the Black American woman with a fashion background in a sea of wealthy white peers that attended very elite British universities. I also did not expect to love law as much as I do and to thrive in London as much as I have. I worked as a bartender, a reader for a blind barrister, and pro bono legal representative for parents of neurodivergent children that have been expelled from school. Developing community and winning both of my pro bono cases affirmed that moving to London was the right choice both personally and professionally.

The challenges I've faced over the past few months, however, have been quite difficult and have led to me creating this campaign. I was diagnosed with major depression in 2015 while I was a student at Carnegie Mellon University and that's something that I've had to accommodate (and learn to not be ashamed of) over the years. I couldn't afford therapy for the majority of the past year and I wound up experiencing a two-month depressive episode in the spring. And even though I bounced back, I found out in late July that my grades really suffered and that taking 7 classes at once caused me more harm than good. I had to retake one failed exam on August 11 and my school, City University of London, insisted that the grade would not be available until September 22. This caused me to be ineligible to do nearly all law programs in the UK and to be disqualified from other UK visa options. The only way for me to stay in the country and continue with law was for me to switch to the 2-year law program.

I spent August fighting tooth and nail to be readmitted to law school, receiving a lot of ableist and xenophobic remarks that were meant to deter me and gatekeep me. However, I kept pushing and my school finally readmitted me and agreed to issue me a CAS for my visa but they wouldn't allow me to apply for my visa in the UK, knowing my original visa would expire on August 30. This has caused me to not only miss work unexpectedly for weeks on end but to also spend all that I have to support myself in the interim. I went to stay with a friend in Germany, only to find out that my school wouldn't issue me the form until Sept 22 when my degree is conferred and that I cannot apply from any other country except the United States. To make matters worse, a colleague had agreed to lend me money for my visa and had arranged to transfer it in mid-September, only to then disappear when the time came. It wasn't until this weekend that I found out from another coworker that he was caught having stolen money from the company before quitting and now has to work it all off so that my employer doesn't sue. This was really triggering for me as I was hacked by a stranger and frauded in July; I lost everything and my British bank refunding everything days later was the only way I was able to continue to make ends meet and do all that I have in the past two months.

Needless to say, this has put my back against the wall and created an extremely tight window. However, with your help, I can return to school and continue my studies; with $5,000, I can cover the cost of my visa ($2,065), the super-priority fee ($1,900), and my flight ($700 at the time I'm writing this). The rest will go to Gofundme fees, the US to UK exchange rate, and travel incidentals. Although there are other priority levels, social media has stressed that they are a scam and people who paid for lower tiers have been waiting for weeks. With 4 days between my form arriving and my course starting, I can only do the next day decision option and that has essentially doubled the cost of my visa.

At this point, this is my only option as I've exhausted all options, cannot return to work until I'm back in London, and I'm estranged from my abusive parents. I've raised myself and my younger sibling, put myself through college, grad school, and now law school via student loans and part-time jobs. And because money is the only thing stopping me, I feel as though this is the final test and I'm willing to step out in faith and ask for help. Thank you so much for reading this and I would be so grateful for your support!