Help Hilal fund her Neuroscience degree at UTSC

My name is Hilal Peri and I am a Co-op Life Sciences (Biological Sciences and Neuroscience) student at University of Toronto Scarborough, finishing my first year. While I had an academically amazing year, unfortunately I had to struggle through financial and familial problems throughout the year, which is going to affect my next years of study at the University of Toronto. Hence I am asking for your support to pay for my second year of education to be able to continue my studies and become a neuroscientist to uncover the mysteries of the brain.

Me in chemistry lab:

My Story

I am an international first generation low income student from Turkey. I got accepted into all 3 campuses of UofT in 2023 february-march and chose UTSC as my first choice in which I got accepted with 180,000 CAD International Scholar Award for 4 years (corresponds to 45,000 per year) and 10,000 CAD President's Scholar Award for the first year as a result of my high school transcript, predicted IB Diploma Program grades and achievements.

The tuition for international students is 60,510 CAD. This year I stayed on residence in the cheapest option available. With the additional first year scholarship, the residence option I selected and my transfer credits which I gained from my IBDP scores; my family was able to afford the first year of my studies.

However, unfortunately, we started having financial and familial problems shortly after I came here.

In October, I lost my grandmother who is my inspiration to come here and study neuroscience. I got interested in neuroscience after her epilepsy diagnosis and I decided to come to Canada to study neuroscience since there is no undergraduate neuroscience program in Turkey. My goal is to work on understanding the underlying causes and pathophysiologies of neurological diseases, especially different types of epilepsy; and work towards therapies to improve patient outcomes with a cellular/molecular approach. Although losing my grandmother was devastating for me as I could not even be able to go to Turkey to attend her funeral, I am now even more motivated to work hard for my goals of conducting epilepsy research so I can honour her.

My mother is a hairdresser and after my grandmother's death, we learnt that my mother had muscle tears in both of her shoulders which was causing so much pain for her and limiting her ability to work. So she had to undergo surgery for her right shoulder in December and is now waiting to get better for her left shoulder surgery. Due to this medical condition, she had to retire in February.

Also, in February there was a theft in our house and the savings for my education are stolen from our house in Turkey. This is still under investigation however the police was unable to find anything yet.

All of these feels unreal and me and my family and we are still trying to recover from everything that happened this year. All of those things unfortunately not only mentally harmed us but also made our financial sitation even worse. While my mom was already struggling with the hospital bills, the theft left us stranded and stole my future.

My mother is my main financial supporter and I only have my mother and my aunt (who is a housewife) who can support me both personally and financially because my mother and father had divorced when I was very little and my father does not financially support me enough for my education. The alimony he pays to me is near 1000 Turkish liras, which equals to 42 CAD, which is far from supporting my tuition and living expenses.

I tried to find jobs both on and off campus this year and I am still searching for jobs to financially support myself. I have found one job on campus for next year which I will start near the end of August. However, even though I try to save every bit of money and do not spend any money, it is very hard for me and my family to pay for my tuition, housing and living expenses next year due to our financial situation.

I am also staying this summer and taking one summer course to be able to apply for summer work study jobs to both financially support myself and start gaining research experience.

Hence I am asking for help with my summer and next year tuition fees. With a full course load for the next year, the amount I would have to pay is approximately 15,000 CAD. Generally one course for international students is approximately 6172 CAD hence I also have to pay this amount for my summer course. Considering the course materials, housing fees and living expenses too, I am asking for at least 25000 CAD for my second year of education. This money would help me to be able to finish the second year of my classes until I start my Co-op work term hopefully next summer while me and my family is trying to financially, emotionally and mentally recover from everything happened this year.

Thank you so much in advance to everyone who is reading this and supporting me.

Me and my family (my mom, my grandmother, me, my cousin, and my aunt):