Anitra's Education

Hi I'm Anitra I'm the daughter of a combat veteran and an Iron Man and I've spent the last 10 years working a minimum of 60 hours per week mostly supporting the disabled community. During some of that time I was also going to school full-time which made my weekly work load about 100 hours a week.

My family lost everything in the economic crisis of 2008 and by the time my mother finally started to get back on her feet I was off to college. Because she had started to get back on her feet the government (when I filled out my fafsa) refused to provide me with any aid other than loans. But because we had lost everything in 2008 she did not have college savings for me.

I got $120k scholarship to go to an HBCU but I would have to have taken out $120k in loans to attend. I chose instead to attend a state school where I could use my father's benefits, the government shut down however delayed the processing of that paperwork and it wasn't until 2 years later that I finally began attending a state school. By this point I had completed about half of the coursework for my degree. During my first year while I was working 3 jobs and going to school full time I got date raped by a man who had just left the Navy and the mental aftermath of it was too much to bear. I got a D in one class and they revoked my benefits without even putting me on academic probation. I was being underpaid to do skilled work and couldn't afford university without the benefits my father served this country to earn. I was only 20 years old and dropped out with a 3.5 gpa.

Fast forward to now, I'm one semester away from my bachelor's degree and I became the victim of some (race and sex based) discriminatory behavior in my workplace that lead to my termination. Despite being treated unfairly I've continued to strive to better educate myself so that I can better serve my community.

My next academic goal, should I receive the funding, will be to get a Master's Degree.