Ursula's College Tuition
Donation protected
In abstract: I am pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in an interdisciplinary major called Human Ecology at a beautiful little school on an island in Maine called College of the Atlantic and in order to continue my studies I need to raise at least $6,200 for the coming school year. My classes, professors and friends/fellow students have made the past three years the most inspiring years of my life but, due to a mild traumatic brain injury, these past three years have also been incredibly challenging. It is daunting to ask for money when I am pursuing a major that does not necessarily set me on the path for a specific, practical career with a sensible salary or pension plan, but I have put more passion, sweat, tears, and strength of will into this degree than I knew I had and I am not ready to give up yet because I believe that the value in my education goes far beyond monetary practicality.
I started at College of the Atlantic not really knowing what to expect but trusting an intuition that it was going to be something good. As I get closer to graduating, I am so glad I trusted that intuition because I am constantly discovering that it was true in more ways than I could have ever imagined. COA is a unique place, off the beaten path, and human ecology — the study of humans in their social and physical environments — is a complex, multilayered, malleable thing. It is not a predetermined curriculum preparing me for specific career, and even though this is a financially illogical and terrifying prospect, I persist. I persist because it is providing me with something of monitarily immeasurable value; it is giving me the opportunity to prepare myself for a rich, well rounded, creative life. I am taking classes in botany, philosophy, social theory, art history, literature, math, and theater. And instead of being taught to view them as disparate or random I am prompted to configure them into a cohesive intricate whole, fluid and versatile: different theories and methodologies, systems of knowledge, and modes of expression paralleling, amplifying, contrasting, and illuminating each other. I am learning to think. To think critically and creatively. To develop my own self-awareness as I develop awareness of the world in which we live through as many different perspectives as I can.
As many of you who know me may know, a month into my first term at COA I sustained a mild traumatic brain injury — a life-altering injury with an average three-to-five-year recovery period. Continuing my studies while recovering has been a great struggle for me personally and for my family. Finances have been stretched by cognitive and vision therapy, osteopathy, and other treatments that were essential to my baseline health and functionality. Retraining parts of my brain and building new skills necessary to care for myself while constantly working with my professors to make sure I put the most in and get the most out of my school work without compromising my cognitive health, I’ve worked three or four times as hard as I might have without the injury. There have have been times when I desperately wanted to give up, but as I continue to heal and grow and learn, this struggle has strengthened my desire to complete my degree all the more. I know I have more healing, growing, and learning still to do at College of the Atlantic. It may be off the beaten path, but there is no place I would rather study and no major in which I would rather invest myself so fully.
But what exactly am I going to do with this degree in human ecology? I was the kid who was interested in nearly every subject in school and the idea of choosing one specific field to major in was the most terrifying prospect about college. In human ecology I have found the perfect fit and through my studies thus far I have also come to realize and accept — with only the slightest amount of light-hearted chagrin — that I am an artist. At my freshman convocation, I remember COA’s president, Daren Collins, warning us that it would often be difficult to explain our major. He offered the consoling suggestion that if anyone gave us a hard time about it, we could counter by asking them to explain art. Unfortunately since I have just declared myself an artist, and this is my attempt to inspire you to donate to my cause, I now find myself in the hapless position of feeling obligated to also define art — or at least explain to you what kind of artist I am. There is no easy way out though: I don’t plan to be a painter or a musician, a sculptor or a poet. I want to be an artist most generally in the sense that I want to use imagination and creative skills for exploration and education. Performance artist might be the closest generally accepted category in which I could place myself since it covers a vast genre full of cross-pollination of mediums and creative skills. Artistic expression is the means through which I explore my studies, and through which I am learning to explore life. I want to use my environment and context as my canvas; my body as my instrument; different bodies of knowledge and systems of thinking as my mediums; movement, sound, and color as my poetry.
While a list of such metaphorical ambiguity might sound like a load of utterly absurd nonsense, here is the upshot: College of the Atlantic and human ecology are providing me with the inspiration, tools, and experience I need to discover, develop, and hone my artistic expression and craft. And why should I choose such a seemingly impractical, most certainly financially inadvisable career as artist? Perhaps you have heard the Howard Thurman quote: “Don’t ask what you can do for the world. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” This quote pops up in my life frequently enough to risk banality, but I find myself living by those words because even under a somewhat hackneyed exterior, they ring true to me every day. My studies at College of the Atlantic make me come alive.
Unfortunately, the cost of tuition is steep. Even with student loans, financial aid, work-study, a Presidential Scholarship, a generous donation from a family member, and daily hard work and sacrifice from my parents, we are still short on my tuition for this year. Scholarships from outside sources for a third year student of my accademic standing are difficult to qualify for. Because of my brian injury I have not been able to maintain a GPA that would allow me to qualify for scholarships based on accademic excellence, but I have also done well enough that I don't qualify for many injury/disability based scholarships. Keeping up with my school work is still quite challenging, and finding the time to apply for essay contest scholarships and the like is a very tenuous venture. So I find myself relient on the grace of your generosity. Whether you can donate a large sum or just $5 or $10, please share this with everyone you know. You are giving me the opportunity to continue my education and as I hope the previous paragraphs indicate how important my education is to me, know that my gratitude will be thousandfold.
#GFMScholarship
I started at College of the Atlantic not really knowing what to expect but trusting an intuition that it was going to be something good. As I get closer to graduating, I am so glad I trusted that intuition because I am constantly discovering that it was true in more ways than I could have ever imagined. COA is a unique place, off the beaten path, and human ecology — the study of humans in their social and physical environments — is a complex, multilayered, malleable thing. It is not a predetermined curriculum preparing me for specific career, and even though this is a financially illogical and terrifying prospect, I persist. I persist because it is providing me with something of monitarily immeasurable value; it is giving me the opportunity to prepare myself for a rich, well rounded, creative life. I am taking classes in botany, philosophy, social theory, art history, literature, math, and theater. And instead of being taught to view them as disparate or random I am prompted to configure them into a cohesive intricate whole, fluid and versatile: different theories and methodologies, systems of knowledge, and modes of expression paralleling, amplifying, contrasting, and illuminating each other. I am learning to think. To think critically and creatively. To develop my own self-awareness as I develop awareness of the world in which we live through as many different perspectives as I can.
As many of you who know me may know, a month into my first term at COA I sustained a mild traumatic brain injury — a life-altering injury with an average three-to-five-year recovery period. Continuing my studies while recovering has been a great struggle for me personally and for my family. Finances have been stretched by cognitive and vision therapy, osteopathy, and other treatments that were essential to my baseline health and functionality. Retraining parts of my brain and building new skills necessary to care for myself while constantly working with my professors to make sure I put the most in and get the most out of my school work without compromising my cognitive health, I’ve worked three or four times as hard as I might have without the injury. There have have been times when I desperately wanted to give up, but as I continue to heal and grow and learn, this struggle has strengthened my desire to complete my degree all the more. I know I have more healing, growing, and learning still to do at College of the Atlantic. It may be off the beaten path, but there is no place I would rather study and no major in which I would rather invest myself so fully.
But what exactly am I going to do with this degree in human ecology? I was the kid who was interested in nearly every subject in school and the idea of choosing one specific field to major in was the most terrifying prospect about college. In human ecology I have found the perfect fit and through my studies thus far I have also come to realize and accept — with only the slightest amount of light-hearted chagrin — that I am an artist. At my freshman convocation, I remember COA’s president, Daren Collins, warning us that it would often be difficult to explain our major. He offered the consoling suggestion that if anyone gave us a hard time about it, we could counter by asking them to explain art. Unfortunately since I have just declared myself an artist, and this is my attempt to inspire you to donate to my cause, I now find myself in the hapless position of feeling obligated to also define art — or at least explain to you what kind of artist I am. There is no easy way out though: I don’t plan to be a painter or a musician, a sculptor or a poet. I want to be an artist most generally in the sense that I want to use imagination and creative skills for exploration and education. Performance artist might be the closest generally accepted category in which I could place myself since it covers a vast genre full of cross-pollination of mediums and creative skills. Artistic expression is the means through which I explore my studies, and through which I am learning to explore life. I want to use my environment and context as my canvas; my body as my instrument; different bodies of knowledge and systems of thinking as my mediums; movement, sound, and color as my poetry.
While a list of such metaphorical ambiguity might sound like a load of utterly absurd nonsense, here is the upshot: College of the Atlantic and human ecology are providing me with the inspiration, tools, and experience I need to discover, develop, and hone my artistic expression and craft. And why should I choose such a seemingly impractical, most certainly financially inadvisable career as artist? Perhaps you have heard the Howard Thurman quote: “Don’t ask what you can do for the world. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” This quote pops up in my life frequently enough to risk banality, but I find myself living by those words because even under a somewhat hackneyed exterior, they ring true to me every day. My studies at College of the Atlantic make me come alive.
Unfortunately, the cost of tuition is steep. Even with student loans, financial aid, work-study, a Presidential Scholarship, a generous donation from a family member, and daily hard work and sacrifice from my parents, we are still short on my tuition for this year. Scholarships from outside sources for a third year student of my accademic standing are difficult to qualify for. Because of my brian injury I have not been able to maintain a GPA that would allow me to qualify for scholarships based on accademic excellence, but I have also done well enough that I don't qualify for many injury/disability based scholarships. Keeping up with my school work is still quite challenging, and finding the time to apply for essay contest scholarships and the like is a very tenuous venture. So I find myself relient on the grace of your generosity. Whether you can donate a large sum or just $5 or $10, please share this with everyone you know. You are giving me the opportunity to continue my education and as I hope the previous paragraphs indicate how important my education is to me, know that my gratitude will be thousandfold.
#GFMScholarship
Organizer
Ursula Rose
Organizer
Paonia, CO