Help Cheryl Reach Her Dreams!
Donation protected
Hi, I'm Cheryl, and I'd like your help. I hope to become a social worker--but through a string of bad luck and what proved to be bad choices, I'm stuck. With your help, I can get back to school and become the first member of my family to graduate from college.
It was always up to me to 'break the cycle' of my mother's children to go to college and make something out of myself. I wish I could say, being the youngest of five children, that I had someone to look up to and follow in their footsteps of success, but, unfortunately, I was the first one to attend college in my family.
I was an average student in high school. I was a three-season athlete playing volleyball, basketball, and softball all four years and even became captain of my volleyball and basketball teams during my junior year. Although it was my favorite sport, basketball was also the longest sport of the year--unfortunately, I had to quit so I could work and help my mother with financial responsibilities. It was then that I realized, being part of a single family household, that I needed to make something out of myself so I would never have to put my future children through what I have been put through so far.
I graduated in May 2011 from Marian High School, and it was such a great day. I had so many plans for myself and my future and this was about to be my first step. I got accepted to Virginia State University for the Spring 2012 semester. With all the family issues I encountered my senior year, deciding where to go to school was a last-minute thing because we didn't know if i could afford it.
When I got to Virginia State it was surreal that someone like me could even make it to college. I tried to work ahead to "catch up" to my classmates, so that we could all graduate college together in 2015. So, I enrolled in a math class and an English writing class, I ended up getting a B in both of those classes. I felt really good about myself--until that fall, when I was told the money for my fall semester was used on my summer classes. Simply put, I didn't have enough money from my loans, so the payment would need to come either out of my pocket, or I would have to drop the classes and erase them from my history, or take out another loan.
I had no one to cosign for this loan, so I ended up erasing both of those classes from history and started all over. I was devastated, but I remained positive.
Three semesters down the road, my mother and i realized I could no longer attend Virginia State University because their tuition increased a good $10,000 more than when I first got accepted. So, I found another school, an hour away: the University of Mary Washington. As soon as I got accepted to Mary Washington, the first thing we did was go to the financial aid office and made sure everything was in order, so my dreams wouldn't end up crushed. Unfortunately, in the process of transferring schools, I had lost 18 credits. That's a whole semester plus three more credits from a different semester I had lost. I was upset, but the transition from one school to a new school kept me motivated and I said I will continue to work hard.
After the semester was over, I received a letter from Mary Washington stating I had a balance of $10,824.31 that was due by a certain time or they would send this balance to a credit agency. Apparently, one of my loans had not gone through and I was not notified until then. Because my mother had moved--and I was in college with a temporary address--the letter was delayed in getting to us. By the time we received it, it was already in the hands of a collection agency. I finally spoke to the collection agent; he told me I have a balance of 12,824.31 due and asked me how I was going to pay this.
Tears started to become visible in my eyes because my family didn't even know how they were going to pay their rent next month, let alone pay all of this money.
The collection officer suggested I take out a loan with Sallie Mae, so I tried that. Four of my cosigners did not get accepted and two more people I asked told me they weren't willing to be my cosigner. I had nothing left, no options, and I felt stuck, and almost depressed in a way that this is what everything has come down to. So I tried for a student loan with my bank DCU, but again I was shot down because they did not do "back loans" which are loans for a previous semester. I felt like everything I had worked for was falling apart.
All of my friends were pursuing their dreams and having everything they wanted right in their hands, while I was stuck.
This summer has been filled with a lot of disappointment for me but for some reason I cannot give up on myself and my dreams of becoming a social worker. I'm upset that I will no longer graduate on time, but being a college graduate is my main goal.
I am dedicated. I am a good, hardworking student, and my goal is to finish my education in social work and become a guidance counselor, helping kids just like myself find opportunities to better their lives. But, I'm stuck. If I can't pay back this balance, not only will I lose all the credits I've gained at Mary Washington, I'll also be kept from transferring them to another school.
I'm reaching out to you, my family and friends, to see if you could help. Every little bit counts--and helping me out with this tough situation is an investment in me that I promise to repay through hard work, determination, and a commitment to change the world for the better.
It was always up to me to 'break the cycle' of my mother's children to go to college and make something out of myself. I wish I could say, being the youngest of five children, that I had someone to look up to and follow in their footsteps of success, but, unfortunately, I was the first one to attend college in my family.
I was an average student in high school. I was a three-season athlete playing volleyball, basketball, and softball all four years and even became captain of my volleyball and basketball teams during my junior year. Although it was my favorite sport, basketball was also the longest sport of the year--unfortunately, I had to quit so I could work and help my mother with financial responsibilities. It was then that I realized, being part of a single family household, that I needed to make something out of myself so I would never have to put my future children through what I have been put through so far.
I graduated in May 2011 from Marian High School, and it was such a great day. I had so many plans for myself and my future and this was about to be my first step. I got accepted to Virginia State University for the Spring 2012 semester. With all the family issues I encountered my senior year, deciding where to go to school was a last-minute thing because we didn't know if i could afford it.
When I got to Virginia State it was surreal that someone like me could even make it to college. I tried to work ahead to "catch up" to my classmates, so that we could all graduate college together in 2015. So, I enrolled in a math class and an English writing class, I ended up getting a B in both of those classes. I felt really good about myself--until that fall, when I was told the money for my fall semester was used on my summer classes. Simply put, I didn't have enough money from my loans, so the payment would need to come either out of my pocket, or I would have to drop the classes and erase them from my history, or take out another loan.
I had no one to cosign for this loan, so I ended up erasing both of those classes from history and started all over. I was devastated, but I remained positive.
Three semesters down the road, my mother and i realized I could no longer attend Virginia State University because their tuition increased a good $10,000 more than when I first got accepted. So, I found another school, an hour away: the University of Mary Washington. As soon as I got accepted to Mary Washington, the first thing we did was go to the financial aid office and made sure everything was in order, so my dreams wouldn't end up crushed. Unfortunately, in the process of transferring schools, I had lost 18 credits. That's a whole semester plus three more credits from a different semester I had lost. I was upset, but the transition from one school to a new school kept me motivated and I said I will continue to work hard.
After the semester was over, I received a letter from Mary Washington stating I had a balance of $10,824.31 that was due by a certain time or they would send this balance to a credit agency. Apparently, one of my loans had not gone through and I was not notified until then. Because my mother had moved--and I was in college with a temporary address--the letter was delayed in getting to us. By the time we received it, it was already in the hands of a collection agency. I finally spoke to the collection agent; he told me I have a balance of 12,824.31 due and asked me how I was going to pay this.
Tears started to become visible in my eyes because my family didn't even know how they were going to pay their rent next month, let alone pay all of this money.
The collection officer suggested I take out a loan with Sallie Mae, so I tried that. Four of my cosigners did not get accepted and two more people I asked told me they weren't willing to be my cosigner. I had nothing left, no options, and I felt stuck, and almost depressed in a way that this is what everything has come down to. So I tried for a student loan with my bank DCU, but again I was shot down because they did not do "back loans" which are loans for a previous semester. I felt like everything I had worked for was falling apart.
All of my friends were pursuing their dreams and having everything they wanted right in their hands, while I was stuck.
This summer has been filled with a lot of disappointment for me but for some reason I cannot give up on myself and my dreams of becoming a social worker. I'm upset that I will no longer graduate on time, but being a college graduate is my main goal.
I am dedicated. I am a good, hardworking student, and my goal is to finish my education in social work and become a guidance counselor, helping kids just like myself find opportunities to better their lives. But, I'm stuck. If I can't pay back this balance, not only will I lose all the credits I've gained at Mary Washington, I'll also be kept from transferring them to another school.
I'm reaching out to you, my family and friends, to see if you could help. Every little bit counts--and helping me out with this tough situation is an investment in me that I promise to repay through hard work, determination, and a commitment to change the world for the better.
Organizer
Cheryl Singleton
Organizer
Framingham, MA