Please Help Me Pay for College!

Hello, my name is Ariana. I am a recent graduate of from Denver's Manual High School, Class of 2016.

First, let me tell you a little about myself. 

I was the valedictorian of my graduating class. 

I received the Mayor's Youth Award in 2014 for facing adversity and always pushing forward, despite any obstacle that stood in my way. 

I have been an active leader in Manual's Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps for all four years of my high school career. In this program have planned charity events, written and distributed new letters, presented speeches, hosted school events, and more. I have served as the Public Affairs Officer, the Administration Officer, Executive Officer, and in my senior year was named the Battalion Commander.

I went from knowing two words in English on my first day of third grade to being placed in the Gifted and Talented program by 5th grade.  And by high school, I was taking a course load full of AP and honors classes. During my senior took my core classes at a local community college through the concurrent enrollment program. 

These accomplishments are only part of my story. 

As a Mexican-American student who learned English as a second language, grew up in low-income neighborhood and attended Title One schools her entire life, my road to success has not been easy. The hardships I have faced play as big a role in my story as my accomplishments do.

I am the first in my family to graduate from high school and will soon be the first to attend college.  I am the oldest of five children in a family with two hardworking parents who work long hours just to make ends meet. There are simply too many expenses to cover, especially since my family pays for everything on our own with no government assistance. 

You might be asking yourself, why has she made a GoFundMe to pay for college? Why doesn't she just apply for loans or scholarships?

I am undocumented.

While my GPA and accomplishments qualify me for hundreds of scholarship opportunities, my documentation status forbids me from applying for almost all of them. It also prevents me from applying for FAFSA, loans, and even to certain colleges.

Since I cannot take out loans, I must find a way to have enough to cover the entire fall tuition payment all at once and all out of pocket. Even though I got into many four year universities, the financial limitations coupled with the documentation status has left community college as my own real option. 

At first, I was broken hearted. I have worked too hard to compromise now. When I asked my school counselors, they said the only way I could gather funds to pay cover college expenses would be to work and to fundraise on my own. So, this is exactly what I am doing. 

Despite the limitations, I still managed to secure over $10,000 in scholarships to use during my first year of college. 

The funds raised on through this page will go directly to paying for books, tuition, fees, and all other expenses from my first year in college. My plan is to complete two years at the Community College of Denver and then transfer to a four year university. This will allow me to continue to live at home and to support my family, and also to start school right away with the funds I have already raised. 

I was only eight years old when my family left Mexico and came to the United States in search of more opportunity and a better future.

The United States is truly the only home I have really ever known. While it wasn't my choice to come, I have spent each moment since the day I stepped into that third grade classroom working tirelessly to achieve my goals.

I have accomplished all of this despite the hardships and instability I face outside of school. Despite having three different principals during my four years at the same high school. Despite having to learn in, what was at first, a foreign language.

Throughout it all, there has been one constant: my persistence and my refusal to ever settle. 

When other people didn’t believe in me, I believed in myself.

I've worked really hard to get to where I am right now. Education changed my life because it gave me the opportunity to learn and to grow. It broadened my world view, sparked new passions, and helped me develop into the scholar I had always dreamed of becoming. I hope to one day give students in the next generation the same opportunity I was given. My hope is to become a teacher who influences young minds and inspires and empowers her students to be successful.

This dream cannot go forward yet-- this is where I need your help. 

I am asking you, please believe in me and please consider donating to support me to continue my  education and make my dream of becoming a teacher one step closer to being a reality.