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UPDATE 8/4/2020
Thank you to all of you who supported Madison during the Spring semester. Your donations helped us get her through; Madison posted a 3.5GPA that semester. She completed a summer semester for which she received a scholarship. I'm asking once more for you to consider a donation to help her through the next semester. We prayed for another scholarship, but it did not come through, and unfortunately there is not a vast network of private scholarships for which she can apply. Please consider assistance - any amount is a blessing.
Madison Garcia is the type of person who should be given a shot. She is the 2nd child in her family and was born when her mother was 17 years old. For all intents and purposes, Madison was a happy child playing with her brother and doing all kinds of kid mischief. Those memories quickly faded and were replaced by front row seats to domestic violence. She and her brother hid under the furniture when their father came home drunk and angry. Her mother was caught in the same story we see repeated again and again. She refused to press charges, believed that she was the one at fault leaving Madison and her brother alone to witness the violence. Eventually, her father was put in jail and her mother escaped from this relationship only to enter a new one several years later. Needless to say, Madison’s childhood was one of constant trauma and chaos.
How is it, then, that Madison graduated high school 2nd in her large class? The vast majority of children in her situation are not able to overcome the trauma and end up exploring other avenues to escape reality. I don’t need to describe what those avenues are. Madison decided to escape into her studies. She did not have a family structure to help her study or understand trigonometry. Nobody in her family had even graduated high school. The only one in her family to graduate high school was her aunt who no longer lived in Ecuador. Who was she to look up to? There was nobody. Madison did it anyway. She stayed out of trouble and focused on her studies. Knowing that it would help her in the future, Madison even took extra English classes outside of her normal studies. Madison was supposed to fail. The stories we hear about triumph over obstacles usually involve a coach, an inspiring teacher, a hard-nosed grandmother – something. Madison had nothing. These are the types of children that are 1 in a million, so we cannot let someone like Madison slip through our fingers.
Ecuador is a poor country relative to the US. It does not have an inexpensive community college system like we enjoy here. There are few loans available for college because almost nobody has collateral. There are no Pell grants or a massive scholarship systems dedicated to needy students. Tuition is approximately $6,000 per semester. Madison’s best full-time job prospects right now pay her 300-400 per month, and she cannot work full time while attending school. We would love to have her live with use and pay for her community college, but she was denied a visa multiple times. What is she to do?
Madison is in her third semester at the University of San Francisco in Quito studying to be an orthodontist. She made it this far through financial assistance that my wife and I provided, but we cannot keep it going any longer. It is for this reason that I need to ask for help to get her through the next semester. I can tell you that Madison is someone worth a strong investment. She is the type of person that can pull herself and thereby the rest of her family out of poverty. If she is able to make it, perhaps even her little brothers will be able to go to college, too.
Thank you to all of you who supported Madison during the Spring semester. Your donations helped us get her through; Madison posted a 3.5GPA that semester. She completed a summer semester for which she received a scholarship. I'm asking once more for you to consider a donation to help her through the next semester. We prayed for another scholarship, but it did not come through, and unfortunately there is not a vast network of private scholarships for which she can apply. Please consider assistance - any amount is a blessing.
Madison Garcia is the type of person who should be given a shot. She is the 2nd child in her family and was born when her mother was 17 years old. For all intents and purposes, Madison was a happy child playing with her brother and doing all kinds of kid mischief. Those memories quickly faded and were replaced by front row seats to domestic violence. She and her brother hid under the furniture when their father came home drunk and angry. Her mother was caught in the same story we see repeated again and again. She refused to press charges, believed that she was the one at fault leaving Madison and her brother alone to witness the violence. Eventually, her father was put in jail and her mother escaped from this relationship only to enter a new one several years later. Needless to say, Madison’s childhood was one of constant trauma and chaos.
How is it, then, that Madison graduated high school 2nd in her large class? The vast majority of children in her situation are not able to overcome the trauma and end up exploring other avenues to escape reality. I don’t need to describe what those avenues are. Madison decided to escape into her studies. She did not have a family structure to help her study or understand trigonometry. Nobody in her family had even graduated high school. The only one in her family to graduate high school was her aunt who no longer lived in Ecuador. Who was she to look up to? There was nobody. Madison did it anyway. She stayed out of trouble and focused on her studies. Knowing that it would help her in the future, Madison even took extra English classes outside of her normal studies. Madison was supposed to fail. The stories we hear about triumph over obstacles usually involve a coach, an inspiring teacher, a hard-nosed grandmother – something. Madison had nothing. These are the types of children that are 1 in a million, so we cannot let someone like Madison slip through our fingers.
Ecuador is a poor country relative to the US. It does not have an inexpensive community college system like we enjoy here. There are few loans available for college because almost nobody has collateral. There are no Pell grants or a massive scholarship systems dedicated to needy students. Tuition is approximately $6,000 per semester. Madison’s best full-time job prospects right now pay her 300-400 per month, and she cannot work full time while attending school. We would love to have her live with use and pay for her community college, but she was denied a visa multiple times. What is she to do?
Madison is in her third semester at the University of San Francisco in Quito studying to be an orthodontist. She made it this far through financial assistance that my wife and I provided, but we cannot keep it going any longer. It is for this reason that I need to ask for help to get her through the next semester. I can tell you that Madison is someone worth a strong investment. She is the type of person that can pull herself and thereby the rest of her family out of poverty. If she is able to make it, perhaps even her little brothers will be able to go to college, too.