Support Ryan's Journey: From Grad to Pro!

I graduated with a two-year associate college degree from Berkshire Community College in June of 2021, a major step in my quest to achieve a four-year college degree in the field of Computer Science Engineering.

As a Berkshire Community College student participating in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) -Berkshire Community College (BCC) Mentoring Program at Berkshire Community College, I have been working with David Cass, an OLLI volunteer mentor in the program and professional in the Computer Science field. David is very committed to assisting me in achieving my goal, and I am very grateful to him.

In connecting with my mentor far more often than most students (who typically connect every 2-4 weeks with their mentor), I have initiated meetings with David on at least a weekly basis, sometimes more often, to actively advance my knowledge and he has generously made himself available. At the same time, I have served as an officer in the BCC Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and have maintained a 3.7 GPA, even as I work part-time and actively father my two children.

While my dream had always been to attend RPI (where I was admitted with an offer of a substantial scholarship that still left a financial gap of over $10,000 for each of the two years), it is simply not possible from a financial perspective. I am also proud to have been accepted at WPI, and Wentworth Institute of Technology.

I am excited (and more financially realistic) to attend UMASS Boston where I was given an excellent Merit Scholarship as well as additional aid. Even so, my unmet out-of-pocket expenses will be around $4,000 for each of the two years that I attend the school because of the higher cost of living in Boston. I currently live in Pittsfield, but I do not own a car which presents significant complications and will provide even more challenges when I am at UMass Boston for the next two years.

I thank you in advance for your support of this GoFundMe campaign. With your support and the support of many others, I know that I will achieve my goal, and I hope that in return, my future contributions to my family, my community and my work will be extraordinary!

Thank you for taking the time to read this information, and for your assistance. Please feel free to forward this to anyone else you think might be interested in contributing.

THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME TO ACHIEVE MY DREAM.

Ryan