Danny Deserves a Degree

I was born in Chile to a modest family, but I dreamed too big for my reach from the beginning. I have supported myself financially since I was a teenager and since then too I have been looking for every opportunity to be involved with science. In the years I spent saving up even to start studying, I had already contacted researchers and knocked on every door to get involved. Before my first lecture, I had already worked in the field and gotten involved as a volunteer supporting graduate and post-graduate researchers. My potential for science is latent: I was awarded Best Research Project at York University's Research Fair; I was in the acknowledgments of various scientific papers for selfless contributions; I was selected from thousands of applicants to join the Global Biodiversity Youth Network 2020 Summit; I'm an ambassador of the Faculty of Science at York University, and I even started my own Honors Thesis research a year in advance to ensure I maximize the opportunity, lastly in 2021 I found and documented a new bee species. 

I am as devoted to science as can be, and I strongly trust my potential. But with an annual tuition fee of $30,000, plus another $1,600 monthly in rent and food, things have been tough and keep getting more challenging. I have been keeping multiple jobs for years and dog-sitting overnight when possible. Chronic stress has already affected me profoundly, but although I keep actively searching for a job that pays enough - even that has been progressively harder in the last couple of years with Covid19 restrictions. My student Visa limitations (I can only work full-time in the summer as long as I am studying full-time during the terms) are also far from making this easier. My family all live in Chile, where my dad has to provide for everyone around him with an uncertain income that cannot compare to first-world expenses, so helping me is not an option. I'm used to having a humble life: I have never even owned a computer of my own in my whole life, and I'm ok working in the library or borrowing from my friends when needed - but I will never be ok knowing I could've been a terrific scientist and wasn't. 

I hope to raise $50,000 to pay off the remaining debt that currently blocks my ability to register for the three remaining courses I have left to finish my undergrad degree and to afford those. I have already been selected for a master’s program under the tutelage of a world-renowned scientist that is retiring soon and is taking one last master’s student to end his career - me. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, something I have worked hard for many, many years. I just need a little help as I have already exhausted all possible means of financial support to get to this point. It is sincerely not easy to put myself in this vulnerable position and give away my story to the broader public. Still, I want to know I did everything I could to avoid being forced to return to Chile empty-handed, with no degree and an in debt when I was so close to achieving so much. Know that every little help would go a long way to helping ease this financial burden.

Yours truly,