Help Mayia Get #GFMScholarship $
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I am Mayia Vranas's mom. I am trying to help her win one of ten $10,000 college tuition scholarships from "Go Fund Me" #GFMScholarship.
Background:
Mayia is a unique individual who was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome and OCD (a related disorder) when she was in third grade, as well as being told she is academically gifted. (Tourette's Syndrome {TS} is a neurological disorder with involuntary movements and vocalizations called tics and these repetitive motions can often lead to major exhaustion and severe physical pain.)
This created a very difficult internal struggle for Mayia, as she has always had to find ways to mentally challenge herself, to reduce the major anxiety that was provoked from being under-stimulated, while at the same time not overdoing it, as getting too tired, excited or stressed exacerbated her 50+ motor and vocal tics. Although Mayia was also diagnosed with depression and anxiety in her senior year of high school, likely related to the Tourette's, she still managed to complete the school year with straight A's, work on her recovery, and receive admission to the world's #1 Public University, the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), where she began in the Fall semester of last year.
Mayia is an amazing young woman. She has volunteered with elderly in an assisted living facility, was chosen amongst many others for an unpaid physics lab assistant in her Freshman year of college, and is currently Co-Vice President of the Society for Physics Students (SPS) at UCB. She initiated and established a new mentorship program through SPS for incoming, inexperienced students who also plan to become physics majors, so they can receive help from upperclassmen who have experienced similar struggles as a Freshman or transfer student. The mentorship program was also established to assist the UCB physics department and the mentalities of future UCB physicists. Here is the link with Mayia in it as Co-VP for SPS: https://sps.berkeley.edu
Mayia got involved with SPS very early in her undergraduate career, becoming the co-vice president as a sophomore. Through this group, she wants to help foster a supportive and accepting community, where diverse individuals can feel safe and welcome to study physics. As a bisexual, disabled woman in physics, she knows the many challenges that minorities in the field face, and through contributing to the community, she hopes that she will make it easier for diverse individuals to prosper. Also, I am so proud of Mayia for taking on this role, as it requires a lot of interaction with others and her social anxiety was debilitating in her senior year of high school and this is one of many things she is challenging herself to do to overcome that problem.
Mayia began her research lab job in her second semester at a condensed matter lab, and has been really excited about the developments that she and her group have achieved there. By doing research in physics, she hopes that she will be able to contribute to society's wealth of knowledge. In the area of condensed matter physics, she and her group are trying to develop new materials that haven't been created on earth before, and by studying their strange properties they can learn new things about nature and contribute their materials to practical applications in research and technology.
Although Mayia is receiving some academic support through UCB's Disabled Students' Program (DSP), she is managing quite well academically. She plans to complete her Bachelor's degree in about 4.5 years, including summer coursework, and go on to graduate school in physics to receive her Ph.D., which she has dreamed of doing since she was a young girl. She is not sure yet which area of physics she will focus on, but believes she wants to do research and become a physics professor.
Because of Mayia's Tourette's disablity, she cannot maintain a job on top of the academic schedule she needs to have in order to continue on to a graduate level education, while also maintaining her disability. Mayia does not need the funds immediately, but given that she will need extra time to complete courses because of her disability, she will eventually need extra funding, as it is very costly to pay for school for over nine plus years!
Winning this Go Fund Me college tuition scholarship would mean a great deal to Mayia and to her father and me because we know it will definitely lessen her stress of trying to find ways to fund her education and this, in turn, would help her feel less anxious and hopefully decrease her motor and vocal tics from the Tourette's. This, of course, would make any parent EXTREMELY thankful, as it will help her a great deal with her disability and her academic success!
Thank you donors and #GFMScholarship for reading about Mayia.
Background:
Mayia is a unique individual who was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome and OCD (a related disorder) when she was in third grade, as well as being told she is academically gifted. (Tourette's Syndrome {TS} is a neurological disorder with involuntary movements and vocalizations called tics and these repetitive motions can often lead to major exhaustion and severe physical pain.)
This created a very difficult internal struggle for Mayia, as she has always had to find ways to mentally challenge herself, to reduce the major anxiety that was provoked from being under-stimulated, while at the same time not overdoing it, as getting too tired, excited or stressed exacerbated her 50+ motor and vocal tics. Although Mayia was also diagnosed with depression and anxiety in her senior year of high school, likely related to the Tourette's, she still managed to complete the school year with straight A's, work on her recovery, and receive admission to the world's #1 Public University, the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), where she began in the Fall semester of last year.
Mayia is an amazing young woman. She has volunteered with elderly in an assisted living facility, was chosen amongst many others for an unpaid physics lab assistant in her Freshman year of college, and is currently Co-Vice President of the Society for Physics Students (SPS) at UCB. She initiated and established a new mentorship program through SPS for incoming, inexperienced students who also plan to become physics majors, so they can receive help from upperclassmen who have experienced similar struggles as a Freshman or transfer student. The mentorship program was also established to assist the UCB physics department and the mentalities of future UCB physicists. Here is the link with Mayia in it as Co-VP for SPS: https://sps.berkeley.edu
Mayia got involved with SPS very early in her undergraduate career, becoming the co-vice president as a sophomore. Through this group, she wants to help foster a supportive and accepting community, where diverse individuals can feel safe and welcome to study physics. As a bisexual, disabled woman in physics, she knows the many challenges that minorities in the field face, and through contributing to the community, she hopes that she will make it easier for diverse individuals to prosper. Also, I am so proud of Mayia for taking on this role, as it requires a lot of interaction with others and her social anxiety was debilitating in her senior year of high school and this is one of many things she is challenging herself to do to overcome that problem.
Mayia began her research lab job in her second semester at a condensed matter lab, and has been really excited about the developments that she and her group have achieved there. By doing research in physics, she hopes that she will be able to contribute to society's wealth of knowledge. In the area of condensed matter physics, she and her group are trying to develop new materials that haven't been created on earth before, and by studying their strange properties they can learn new things about nature and contribute their materials to practical applications in research and technology.
Although Mayia is receiving some academic support through UCB's Disabled Students' Program (DSP), she is managing quite well academically. She plans to complete her Bachelor's degree in about 4.5 years, including summer coursework, and go on to graduate school in physics to receive her Ph.D., which she has dreamed of doing since she was a young girl. She is not sure yet which area of physics she will focus on, but believes she wants to do research and become a physics professor.
Because of Mayia's Tourette's disablity, she cannot maintain a job on top of the academic schedule she needs to have in order to continue on to a graduate level education, while also maintaining her disability. Mayia does not need the funds immediately, but given that she will need extra time to complete courses because of her disability, she will eventually need extra funding, as it is very costly to pay for school for over nine plus years!
Winning this Go Fund Me college tuition scholarship would mean a great deal to Mayia and to her father and me because we know it will definitely lessen her stress of trying to find ways to fund her education and this, in turn, would help her feel less anxious and hopefully decrease her motor and vocal tics from the Tourette's. This, of course, would make any parent EXTREMELY thankful, as it will help her a great deal with her disability and her academic success!
Thank you donors and #GFMScholarship for reading about Mayia.
Organiser
Laura Vranas
Organiser
Danville, CA
