This fundraiser is in support of my incredible friend Meg and her teenaged child Jae. Meg is a deep and supportive friend, clinical social worker, psychodynamic psychotherapist and parent (to kids ages 6 and 20). As someone who regularly provides emotional and logistical labor for others, Meg is now in need of transitional support as she navigates a recent marriage separation and the changes to income that come along with it.

This fundraiser is specifically to help support Meg in paying the modest amount of tuition she owes for her oldest child Jae to attend college this year.

Meg herself is a first generation college student who began taking classes at the local community college when her oldest child Jae was in pre-school. As a single parent pursuing higher ed, Meg and Jae’s lives were full of sacrifice, fiscal scarcity, upheaval (and sweetness!) while Meg worked to earn a scholarship-supported undergrad degree from Bryn Mawr College, and later, a masters from Smith College School for Social Work. In her work as a psychotherapist, Meg supports low income and no-fee-paying queer and trans clients clients who are and suffering from symptoms of complex trauma including survivors of extensive and prolonged sexual violence. Meg is steadily growing her own practice using an ethical sliding scale, self selecting a much lower degree of personal income in order to offer marginalized and vulnerable populations access to mental health care.

Now, Meg’s child Jae is seeding her own educational journey in Western Mass as a Freshman at Hampshire College - a school known for the rigorous demands and self-starting work ethic required for its non-traditional, student-designed course work. In her young life, Jae has persevered through Philly public school system disruptions and malfunction, enduring budget cuts, distanced learning through Covid and navigating the public transportation infrastructure as a queer disabled person. Meg’s parental commitment for Jae's college experience is to alleviate as much financial burden on Jae while she is learning as is possible, and to mitigate the stressful impacts of divorce on Jae so that she experiences a less tumultuous educational experience in her own college career.

Jae is currently receiving considerable grant awards and scholarship funding from Hampshire College. The remaining annual tuition commitment for Meg’s household is $4,000 per semester or $8,000 per school year for the next four years, covering the cost of tuition, lodging, and a meal plan.

When Meg finally graduated in 2018 she held $174,000 in student debt. Her first early career clinician job in 2019 paid $19.83 per hour. These are the math equations that haunt Meg - and so many of us - trying to pay off student debts while assisting their own children through school. After this sudden shift in household income Meg’s fiscal responsibility remains the same though the access to income has been greatly reduced. Many hands, many wallets make a much lighter load. Can we come together as a community to support our beloved Meg and Jae?

pictured in photo: Meg and Jae at Meg's graduation party from Smith College circa 2018 - time flies!