John Henry's College Degree
Donation protected
I am an engineering major at Virginia Tech. I have a 3.8 GPA despite working 25 hours a week at a fast food restaurant and 8 hours a week in a lab on campus. Recently I've found myself skipping classes so I can work more hours, because I've been too stressed about the $15,000 per semester in loans. My family's Estimated Contribution level is $0 per year according to FAFSA, but I was not given a reasonable enough level of financial aid. I could really use anything at all to finish my education. I know I can do a lot with my degree, I just need to pay for it, or at least a reasonably sized fraction of it.
It took a lot to bring me to make this page. I am not normally one to look for handouts, but I have been pushed further than I can handle. I want it to be clear that I am not asking anyone to simply fund my whole education. I have been and will continue to apply for scholarships, and I will continue to work until my degree is paid for. I just hope that I can maybe work a little less during the schoolyear, or not feel the need to get a ridiculous amount of credits every semester. I want everyone to understand that my incredibly lofty goal of $80,000 is still less than three-quarters of my projected debt level at graduation, and I fully intend to work as hard as possible to lower that number even more.
I think it might be beneficial to say a little bit about my background. I am not looking for pity, but an understanding of what drove me to finally begin looking for donations. When I was ten, my father died of small cell lung cancer. He was a trucker, working over 50 hours a week, so I only saw him on the weekends. It is from him that I learned to have a work ethic, and to be dedicated to working through difficult times.
He left my mother, a stay-at-home mom, my two little sisters, and I with very little, since most of his paychecks went to the mortgage my parents took out in the mid-nineties. With the crash of the housing market in 2008 that meant that we really didn't have much at all. Eventually we had to sell at a loss on the verge of foreclosure and for the next year and a half my mom and sisters lived in my grandparents' basement while I was at boarding school (I was lucky enough to receive a full scholarship).
At the end of my sophomore year of high school, my family moved into a house of our own. It's old, and the repairs are certainly a work in progress, but it's ours. My mother works hard to keep our family afloat, but with no college education, minimal formal training, and even less formal work experience, she can't get a job that pays enough to maintain a family of four and at the same time take on interest from Parent PLUS loans (the loans I plan to pay off first). At the moment my family lives on under-the-table work paid in cash bridging social security checks, in hopes that one day it will be easier.
It is for my family that I need to stay in school. I believe that one day life can be easier. I know if anyone deserves a break from the daily struggle, it's my mom. But if I graduate with $100,000+ in student debt, I'm not even sure how that could be worth it. I don't want to give up. I think that my academic abilities and the work ethic instilled in me by my parents since I was young can bring me somewhere, but every day I wonder if that is enough to overcome such a large sum. That's why I have finally broken down and reached out to friends and strangers alike through gofundme. I think that one day I'll be in the place to take care of my family financially, but I need a degree to get there, and I need to somehow pay for the degree. I am grateful to everyone who supports me in any way, with money, kind words, advice, spreading the word, or anything at all. Thank you.
#gfmscholarship
It took a lot to bring me to make this page. I am not normally one to look for handouts, but I have been pushed further than I can handle. I want it to be clear that I am not asking anyone to simply fund my whole education. I have been and will continue to apply for scholarships, and I will continue to work until my degree is paid for. I just hope that I can maybe work a little less during the schoolyear, or not feel the need to get a ridiculous amount of credits every semester. I want everyone to understand that my incredibly lofty goal of $80,000 is still less than three-quarters of my projected debt level at graduation, and I fully intend to work as hard as possible to lower that number even more.
I think it might be beneficial to say a little bit about my background. I am not looking for pity, but an understanding of what drove me to finally begin looking for donations. When I was ten, my father died of small cell lung cancer. He was a trucker, working over 50 hours a week, so I only saw him on the weekends. It is from him that I learned to have a work ethic, and to be dedicated to working through difficult times.
He left my mother, a stay-at-home mom, my two little sisters, and I with very little, since most of his paychecks went to the mortgage my parents took out in the mid-nineties. With the crash of the housing market in 2008 that meant that we really didn't have much at all. Eventually we had to sell at a loss on the verge of foreclosure and for the next year and a half my mom and sisters lived in my grandparents' basement while I was at boarding school (I was lucky enough to receive a full scholarship).
At the end of my sophomore year of high school, my family moved into a house of our own. It's old, and the repairs are certainly a work in progress, but it's ours. My mother works hard to keep our family afloat, but with no college education, minimal formal training, and even less formal work experience, she can't get a job that pays enough to maintain a family of four and at the same time take on interest from Parent PLUS loans (the loans I plan to pay off first). At the moment my family lives on under-the-table work paid in cash bridging social security checks, in hopes that one day it will be easier.
It is for my family that I need to stay in school. I believe that one day life can be easier. I know if anyone deserves a break from the daily struggle, it's my mom. But if I graduate with $100,000+ in student debt, I'm not even sure how that could be worth it. I don't want to give up. I think that my academic abilities and the work ethic instilled in me by my parents since I was young can bring me somewhere, but every day I wonder if that is enough to overcome such a large sum. That's why I have finally broken down and reached out to friends and strangers alike through gofundme. I think that one day I'll be in the place to take care of my family financially, but I need a degree to get there, and I need to somehow pay for the degree. I am grateful to everyone who supports me in any way, with money, kind words, advice, spreading the word, or anything at all. Thank you.
#gfmscholarship
Organizer
John Henry Fitzgerald
Organizer
Braintree, MA