Help a Homeless Kid Go Back to College

UPDATE: We need more than I thought. See updates, and help and share if you can. Love you all for what you are doing to help this beautiful young person.

TLDR: throw in a few bucks for a kid who wants to go back to college and has been handed a totally shitty set of circumstances.

I can't believe I am doing this but I have been working on this for weeks and a GoFundMe is sadly the best I could come up with. My amazing kid, who is 20 years old and in college, has an amazing significant other. Let's call them SO (for Significant Other). SO had a successful year at a great university in Massachusetts. SO is studying graphic design at college, plays the guitar, loves comics, and is kindness personified. Sadly, SO was thrown out of their family home for reasons that are heartbreaking and hard for me to fathom. This summer, SO is living with my family (we are thrilled!), working full-time, and saving for college. SO has been paying their own way in the world for years, but last year's tuition and room/board cleaned them out. SO is trying to raise enough money for next year, but even with the full time gig (working for my husband, Phil!) this summer, it's not going to be enough. SO's family is refusing to supply tax info for the FAFSA but also likely makes just too much to qualify for aid even if we could somehow get the taxes (we have tried for weeks now). We worked with FAFSA advisors, but without clear abuse or incarceration or other issues, it is almost impossible to be emancipated/independent for the FAFSA until age 24 without doing it first through court, which is not something SO wants to pursue right now. SO is planning to go back for Fall and then take time off until they can raise the money to go back. School costs about $6,250 per semester. I hate to see them stop out and risk not going back. I am going to kick in a thousand dollars to help but this is all I can afford right now, which is making me so sad. I decided to put this stupid campaign together because this kid works all the time and all SO wants is to go to college! I am going to set the campaign at $11,500 which would be the whole year minus my contribution and allow SO to save the current money raised for junior year. But even if we made just $5,250, it would take care of next year.

I don't know what to say. FAFSA is so hard for so many kids whose parents don't value education and who are not supportive of their children. And even a low in-state tuition is too high for so many families and so many young adults who are effectively on their own.

I speak daily to the deans and financial aid office at the state university that SO attends. I have worked with colleagues there before, so I am able to help navigate and they are helping me looking into some Res Life positions and other options since federal financial aid is not going to come through. No matter what, this kid is going to have trouble affording to finish college with absolutely no family safety net and no easy path to independence for aid.

I am protecting SO's identity here. The picture is of my own lucky, lucky kid walking towards the admissions office of the college she attends and gets financial aid from.

I don't want to magnify any of the trauma that SO is experiencing with their family, so I am keeping their name out of this. The money will come to me and I will give it to SO. If you don't know me, I understand why you would be skeptical, but my life's work is focused on college affordability, and I hope you will check me out and take a chance on throwing a few bucks this way. Anything we raise will go directly to SO to pay their bills for school.

Sorry to be longwinded, but public college should be free because this absolutely is not fair.