My name is Tierney Brinkman. I am a mother, partner, and teacher. In 2021, I had traumatic brain injury and subsequent neck trauma. It took me a year and a half of intensive, daily, physical therapy to recover. Just as I was recovering from the TBI, I was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I began a two year course of chemotherapy. In the middle of chemotherapy, during April of 2024, I was struck over the head with a book by a student suffering from mental illness. I had to begin the process of resetting my vestibular system in Neuro P.T. all over again. I had to do speech therapy, and weekly physical therapy. It has taken a year to get close to where I was neurologically before this incident occurred. All the while, I have still been in treatment for cancer.

Recently, however, I finished my last course of chemotherapy, and I am going into "watch and wait," as my particular cancer is incurable and I will never be in full remission. As well, I rang my bell for Neuro P.T., finishing a year of resetting functions reinjured by the blow to my head.

Seeing life through very new eyes, and being a teacher, I planned to go back to school to get my Masters in Education. As a working mother and teacher, there was a federal grant that was going to cover the entirety of the cost of the degree program. However, due to cuts to all federal grants in the Department of Education (except for Pell) by the Trump administration, the grant no longer exists. While there will be possibilities of municipal and state stipends, they are not guaranteed.

I start Loyola University this summer. I will need to put a deposit down. The whole of the program is $12,000. This program was bought and paid for by American tax payers, and now it's gone, which is devastating. We have spent a small fortune in medical bills. We can't afford $12,000 of extra debt. However, it's important to me as an educator to be the best I can be for my students, and to build on the foundations of the degrees I have already obtained....and am still paying for.

My cancer treatment is on pause. I have had little to no help with Workman's Comp for the concussion suffered from the student. We are still in debt from our previous years in school.

Please, whatever you can give would be appreciated beyond words.

Were it not the the Trump administration, I wouldn't even have to ask. It would've been paid in full.

I know times are tough, but Please, please help us, if you can.