Victim of the OSAP Chaos: Help Krystal Pay Tuition

My name is Krystal Ackland. I’m 43 years old, and I live in northern Ontario. I’m a student at triOS College, taking Business Administration, Entrepreneurship and Management (BEAM) program, with an internship. I started January 12, 2026, and I’m supposed to graduate May 7, 2027.

I was a drug addict for 17 years of my life. Seventeen years I lost. In that life, I was in and out of jail for several years, on and off. Most people don’t come back from the life I was in. Most people don’t do what I’ve done. I lived in London, Ontario my whole life, and about five years ago I moved up here to Ramore to get sober off fentanyl, because I knew if I didn’t, I was going to die. If you had told me back then that one day I’d be sitting in a college classroom, I never would have believed you. I should have been dead. A lot of people I knew didn’t make it out. I did, but I didn’t do it alone.

I moved in with my best friend of 26 years, and her and her family helped me get sober. They saved my life. She believed in me before I could believe in myself. And then, about two years ago, she passed away in a car accident, and I’ve been carrying that grief with me ever since. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss her. Every assignment I hand in, I think of her. She would have been so proud of me.

It was so hard to get here. People have no idea how hard. I fought through addiction, I fought through grief, I fought through days I didn’t think I could get through. But I did. I got sober. I stayed sober. And I went back to school at 43 years old because I wanted a better life. I wanted a good job. I wanted, for once in my life, to be proud of myself.

And I’m doing it. I have about a 90% average. I’m not currently working. I’m working with the school on getting a business grant so I can open up my own business in the future.

I am so proud of myself. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say that before, not really. Nobody who knew me back then would believe this is my life now. It was so hard to get to where I am today, every single step of it was hard. I had to fight for my sobriety, fight through losing my best friend, fight to get into school and fight to stay in it. Nothing about my life has ever been easy. But I did it. I’m here. And I am proud of who I am today.

Graduating means everything to me. It’s not just a piece of paper. It’s proof that I changed my life. It’s proof that those 17 years didn’t win. It’s the biggest milestone of my whole life, and I am so close I can almost touch it.

My total tuition is $19,652. Last year $10,582 of it was paid, my grant was $8,965, and I only had to pay back $1,617. Last year’s doesn’t change. This year OSAP was paying $10,600, and I was only supposed to pay back $1,200 of it. But now that’s all changed. Now my grant is only $2,800 and I have to pay back $7,800. And even that grant is only if OSAP approves my school, and who knows how long that new approval is going to take?

So right now, today, I owe $9,070, and I have to pay it out of my own pocket, or I have to withdraw from school. Yes, they gave me a payment plan, but that’s extra monthly payments, and I can’t afford them. I’m on disability for my mental health and anxiety, and I only get about $1,400 a month. How am I supposed to do this? I barely get by as it is.

And if I don’t graduate, if I have to drop out because I can’t afford it, I will owe the full tuition. All $19,652. I lose my diploma. I lose my business. I lose everything I worked for, and I still owe all the money. That terrifies me. Everything I fought for could be gone, not because I failed, not because I quit, because the money got taken away.

I tried to get a student loan through the bank, and I got denied because of an old Bell Mobility bill from when I was in my addiction. That broke my heart into pieces. I’m being punished for the worst years of my life, by the same past I’m trying so hard to outrun. I’ve changed. I swear to God I’ve changed. But my past keeps following me everywhere I go, and it’s so discouraging. It hurts more than I can even put into words.

This funding freeze has turned my whole life upside down. I’m not sleeping. I lay awake at night crying, staring at the ceiling, wondering how I’m going to come up with this money. My anxiety is triggered every single day. I already struggle with my mental health, and this has made it so much worse. I even had to start a GoFundMe just to try to stay in school. Me. Asking strangers for help. I never wanted to have to do that, but I have no other way.

If you’re reading this and you’ve ever had to start your life over, if you’ve ever fought like hell to become a better person, then you know what this costs, and you know what it feels like to almost lose it all right at the finish line.

Please don’t let it end like this. I don’t want to give up. I’ve come too far, and I’ve fought too hard, to lose this now this close to graduation.

So please if my story moved you, please stand with me now and donate to my GoFundMe to help me stay in school. Help me finish what I started. This is my one chance to finish, and I’ve fought too hard to lose it now. I can’t do this last part alone, but with your help, I know I can make it.