Help 1st Gen Student Afford Dream School

I'm a first generation, low income student from Georgia who has (miraculously!) been accepted into Barnard College of Columbia University.  They are asking my family to pay $18,820 for the first year. We can't afford that, but Barnard is my dream school and I can't let this opportunity pass me by. 

My parents have always worked so hard to keep me in school and focused on my future even when we went bankrupt in 2008 and faced foreclosure. They don't come from money and don't have this kind of money on hand. Covid only made things  more complicated for us financially when my mom lost her job.  I'm doing this to ease their burden, and make my dreams of an education possible. When I turned 16 I began working summers, but when Covid hit I had to stay home and haven't been able to save up as much as I had hoped. 

I want to go to college, get my bachelors, and become a lawyer. I'll be able to repay my parents by taking care of them like they did for me. I also want to use my law degree to give back to my community; throughout my life I have witnesses many injustices and I desperately hope to fix them through the legal system. Unfortunately I need help to get to that point. These are hard times for us, and I hope to be in a better place financially moving into graduate school. 

If you can, please donate or share. I hate to ask, but I want to relieve as much of the burden from my family and my future as possible. Thank you for taking the time to read my story, I appreciate any action you can take to help make Barnard possible for me!