An Incest Survivor's College Expenses

My name is Gabrielle, and I am an incest and sex trafficking survivor. After battling eight years of sexual abuse between the ages of nine and seventeen and suffering two miscarriages of fetuses conceived from rape, I fled my father and my abusive household to attend Central Maine Community College. There I was conferred an Associate's Degree in Liberal Arts with a 4.0GPA while working twenty hours per week in a federally approved work study program, primarily as a math and science tutor.

Miraculously, I was accepted to Smith College, a premier women's college in Massachusetts. Although I was generously offered a significant amount of financial aid in the form of scholarships, grants, and student loans covering nearly all of my tuition, housing, and healthcare, other miscellaneous expenses such as the remainder of tuition ($150 per semester) textbooks ($600 per semester+), transportation to and from Smith ($500 per semester+), housing during recesses, warm winter clothes, and basic dorm amenities (laundry, housing dues, living and school supplies etc.) were not.

If I cannot scrape together the funds, I cannot attend. Without a car or a dependable place to live, I will be forced to consider returning to my abusive household.

As it is, I am bouncing between relatives for the summer and therefore cannot find steady work. I am using my measly reserve of earnings as well as SNAP benefits to feed myself; there is nothing extra. I cannot pay for treatment for my disfigured spine, a result of my abuse, nor can I pay for therapy for my Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, much less afford mounting textbook costs. Anything my supporters can spare is plenty. 

Thank you so much for reading and have a fabulous day.