DISCLAIMER: I am grateful for any help you are able to provide and no amount is too small. There is a single transaction fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 that is automatically deducted from each donation by GoFundMe. For example, if you donate $10, GoFundMe will keep $0.58 and I will receive $9.42. Additionally, please know that, when making your donation, there is an optional “tip” feature which has been preset to a certain percentage by GoFundMe and that all “tips” go directly to the GoFundMe platform for their operation costs. Recipients on GoFundMe do not receive any portion of the “tips.” If you do not wish to tip the GoFundMe platform, you must slide the percentage to “$0 (0%)” or simply adjust it to the desired amount you would like to give directly to the GoFundMe platform. I am including this disclaimer because I have seen complaints online about donors having more money than desired deducted from their accounts due to the “tips” preset and I would prefer for you to only donate whatever amount you would like to donate without any surprises.

My Story (Brief Version):

I am a current medical student and I am in my final year of a joint degree program for both medical school and a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree. I currently have a financial hold on my account which will prevent me from graduating and I do not qualify for financial aid this academic year (although I am still in the process of completing degree requirements). As a result, I have not been able to pay my rent for the past two months (I have never paid rent late before) and if I miss one more month of rent, it may lead to an eviction. I currently have less than $200 to my name and I cannot even afford to register for my very last medical degree requirement (my medical licensing exam).

Additionally, my father, who had pre-existing Parkinson’s Disease, suffered a crippling stroke in the summer of 2022 (in between my first and second year of medical school). I was in charge of all of his medical care, as he recovered in a subacute rehabilitation facility, while simultaneously going to medical school. I have faced several personal challenges because of what I have experienced but it has only served to enhance my medical training so that I can better serve my future patients. Fortunately, I was able to successfully complete and pass all of my medical degree requirements, however, I still have only one more thing left to do to finally graduate from medical school—take my second medical licensing exam.

After completing my very last clinical rotation for medical school, I began taking courses for my MPH degree. About one month into this program, my father unexpectedly passed away in late June 2025. It was a complete shock because he had not been recently sick or hospitalized. In the middle of fresh grief, I had to make the difficult decision to remain in my joint degree program because I could not financially (or academically) afford to take a break from school to grieve. Although I have done well in my MPH program, while simultaneously processing my grief, I have faced several financial challenges in the face of not being able to secure work and not being eligible for financial aid this academic year. Due to a six-year time limit policy, commonly enforced by virtually all U.S. medical schools and based on current medical education accreditation standards, if I do not finish completing my medical degree requirements this academic year, I may be subject to dismissal from medical school.

As a medical student, I would greatly appreciate your donation (no amount is too small). With your help, I can avoid a potential eviction from my home. Additionally, I would be able to afford to pay for my last medical degree requirement (my medical licensing exam) and avoid a potential dismissal from medical school. The following is a verifiable breakdown of what I currently need financial help with as a medical student:

Total Amount = $14,401.19

The total amount I am requesting help with is actually less than what I am currently in need of. In addition to rent for December (and beyond), I still have to figure out how I will pay for utilities, food, etc., in general. Therefore, in addition to donations, I am also open to scholarship opportunities and work opportunities. I currently live in Harlem (in Manhattan) so I can work in person within (or just outside of) New York City, including parts of the tri-state area accessible by public transportation. I am, also, open to remote work opportunities (from any state). My most recent work experiences are in medical research (data collection and management, basic statistical analysis, literature review, writing, copyediting, etc.) but I also have years of experience in customer service, administrative/clerical support (in both clinical and non-clinical settings), medical assisting, patient health education, and STEM tutoring (middle school through undergraduate levels), for example.

Thank you in advance for your help. Please share with others who might want to contribute. God bless you.

My Story (Full Version):

I never thought I would find myself in this position. I, also, never thought I would have to restart my medical education. As a full-time college student, coming from a low-income background, I had to work several part-time jobs in order to make ends meet. I was also responsible for managing the healthcare of my mom. When I finally got accepted into medical school, I was ecstatic and I devoted all of my time to studying while still managing my mom's healthcare remotely (I am her only child and she lived alone). However, I did not anticipate the challenges I would face in medical school. The volume of material to be learned compared to the limited availability of time to learn, rehearse, and retain such material was a shock to us all once we were actually in the mix. Additionally, managing my mom's healthcare, back home, became increasingly complex.

As a medical student, whenever personal challenges arise, you have two options: either do nothing (and just keep on studying) or do something. I love my mom and I did not have anyone else to delegate these responsibilities to so I chose to do something while juggling medical school. I developed arrangements with my mom's healthcare team so that I could better balance medical school, however, my grades still took a small, but very costly, hit. It is a strange experience to miss passing a course by half a point.

Ultimately, when I lost my seat, I was devastated. I, also, quickly learned that I could not transfer any of my medical school credits and the only option available, to students like me, was to restart my medical degree overseas (which I was willing to do). The transition to re-entering medical school was very difficult. My financial resources were very limited and I had to prepare to retake my Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) exam since my original scores were too old. It was during this time that I learned of a school offering a special one-year, accelerated master’s degree program paired with a conditional acceptance into their medical school (here in the U.S.).

By the grace of God, I got into this highly competitive program and, by the end of the year, I exceeded the high GPA requirement needed to obtain entry into medical school. In the fall of 2021, I restarted medical school and, despite the fact that the curriculum was significantly more difficult than that of my last medical school, I actually did much better academically in this new environment. Then, in May 2022, right before final exams at the very end of my first year, my mom was hospitalized. I still did well on my final exams and my mom was eventually discharged in early June. However, two weeks after her discharge, my life was forever changed when my father experienced a debilitating stroke in the presence of pre-existing Parkinson's Disease (Stage 3 transitioning to Stage 4).

After spending almost 6 weeks in the ICU, my father was transferred to a subacute rehabilitation facility for further care (during the first week of my second year of medical school) and I found myself in a similar situation I had previously faced as a medical student-except it was way worse. My father had lost his ability to walk as he was now paralyzed from the waist down and only had some mobility in his right arm and very limited mobility in his left arm. It, also, took a while for him to regain his ability to speak. Given his condition, I began making all of his medical care decisions as I navigated my second year of medical school.

Several months later, while obtaining medical clearance to start my third-year clinical rotations, several masses were found in my lower abdominal region during my physical examination. With everything that was already happening, my heart just broke. I started to wonder if this might be cancer. Over the next few months, as instructed, I proceeded to obtain imaging tests. Then, when I was less than one week away from starting my third-year rotations, I was informed that I was in need of urgent surgery based on the results of my MRI scan. After only a week and a half of starting my third-year rotations, I found myself secured to a surgical table for laparoscopic surgery. I was now a third-year medical student—and a patient.

During my post-surgical recovery, I was given the unique opportunity of experiencing what it was like to be a patient. I did not take for granted any of the interactions I had with the various members of the healthcare team who took care of me. The surgical team and all of the nurses I encountered were amazing and I am forever grateful for their care. Later on, I breathed a sigh of relief when the post-surgical pathology report revealed that the masses removed were non-cancerous (something that could not be confirmed prior to surgery).

As I continued my third-year rotations, I gradually regained my strength. I was able to incorporate both my recent experience as a patient and the experience of managing my father's medical care into how I delivered care to patients, and interacted with their families/caregivers, throughout all of my clinical rotations. The personal challenges I had faced served to enhance my medical training.

Throughout my third year, my father was hospitalized repeatedly for aspiration pneumonia and sepsis. I continued to navigate my third-year rotations while managing my father's medical care. However, by the beginning of my fourth (and final) year of medical school, my father's health severely deteriorated. Over the next couple of months, my family and I had to have some very difficult conversations with the palliative care team. Therefore, while completing my fourth-year clinical rotations, I had to face the very difficult reality that my father’s post-stroke recovery was not going in the direction I had hoped.

Although I did well throughout my fourth year, with everything that was going on with my dad, it became a challenge to be in the right frame of mind to appropriately clear practice tests so that I could take my second medical licensing exam (my final medical degree requirement). Medical licensing exams predominantly test your medical knowledge but, also, partially test your ability to take this specific kind of standardized exam in a timed, multiple choice question-based format. Therefore, a medical student can possess the knowledge necessary to pass this standardized exam. However, if they are not emotionally/mentally ready to take this exam, it can negatively impact their ability to recall learned material, their standardized test taking skills, or both-something I have witnessed happen to a number of bright, hardworking medical students (at various medical schools), throughout the years.

Keeping all of this in mind, I had to determine the best (and most realistic) time frame to set as my goal test date to take my medical licensing exam. Based on how increasingly busy my clinical rotations became as I progressed through my fourth year, I decided that it would be in my best interest to take my exam sometime in the summer (after completion of my clinical rotations and during the four-week break between the summer and fall terms for the new joint medical degree/MPH program my school had just started offering). After completing my very last clinical rotation for medical school, I began taking courses for my MPH degree the following month while simultaneously utilizing helpful test prep materials provided by my medical school.

I excelled in my MPH coursework and my father’s health had remained relatively stable for an extended amount of time. For the first time in years, things were going quite well and I continued to study for my medical licensing exam alongside my MPH courses. So I was surprised when I received a call from the rehabilitation facility informing me that my father had suddenly coded and that they were unable to revive him in late June 2025 (just one month into my MPH program). My father’s sudden death had caught me completely off guard because he had not been sick or hospitalized recently. Now, in the middle of fresh grief, I had to quickly decide what I was going to do about school.

In keeping with accreditation standards within medical education, most—if not all—U.S. medical schools have a six-year time limit policy for starting and completing your medical degree (including taking breaks or a leave of absence). Consequently, if a medical student does not adhere to the six-year policy of their medical school, they could end up dismissed from their medical school. As a full-time student, since I am completely self-supporting and my sole source of income, to cover my rent and other expenses, was through my financial aid, I had to make the very difficult decision to remain in the program as I planned my father’s funeral and navigated my grief. The only other alternative I had was to take a leave of absence, start working full-time (plus additional hours), and then, somehow, still prepare for my medical licensing exam somewhere in between—a seemingly impossible feat in the face of the unpredictable journey of grief.

This decision was particularly challenging because my father was the person I was most close to in this world. He was my biggest cheerleader throughout my medical training and his death was a big loss for me. However, the potential consequences of pursuing the alternative option—by stepping away from school—were worse. Due to the six-year policy, it was too risky to take time off as it would mean that I could jeopardize the completion of my medical degree since I was currently in my fifth year. I could not financially (or academically) afford to take a break from school to grieve. Thus, I remained a full-time student and I was now planning my father’s funeral during the four-week summer break initially intended for taking my medical licensing exam.

While I have had past experience with grieving the loss of a loved one within the context of being a full-time student, I greatly underestimated the weight and effect of grief associated with the loss of a parent, more specifically, one you were close to. When I look back, I now recognize that some of the decisions I made, during my earlier stage of grief, were not wise. For example, during the funeral planning process, my younger brother and I did not fundraise any money (on any platform) to cover the funeral expenses for our father. We paid for all of our father’s funeral expenses upfront and out of our own pockets (a few, kindhearted individuals would later send donations directly to our Zelle accounts, helping us to recoup about 25% of the costs—for which we are grateful).

I had used money earmarked to help cover me financially towards the end of the academic year to pay for the funeral home services (I was in the summer 2025 term during the funeral planning and I used money I had planned to set aside for the latter half of the spring 2026 term). I made this decision assuming that, by the middle of the spring 2026 term, I would be able to secure paid work as I was transitioning to finishing up my classes that semester. This was a mistake. I did not anticipate that the economy and the job market would drastically shift the way it has in 2026. Additionally, I did not factor in potential expenses, related to the loss of a loved one, which may be incurred after their funeral.

My father’s funeral took place at the end of the first week of the fall 2025 semester. Up until that point, I felt like I had been holding my breath since the day he had passed away and now, as they were lowering his casket into the ground, I felt a small sense of relief because he was finally being respectfully laid to rest. The very next day, I had to return to my MPH coursework because my first assignment of the semester was due that night. This transition was a bit rough because I was emotionally and physically exhausted. However, for the MPH program, I am required to maintain a minimum overall GPA of 3.0 and, for each course, I must attain a grade of “B” or higher, otherwise, I would have to repeat the course. I could not afford to fall behind. Therefore, while still keeping my father in my heart, I pressed on into the semester.

To creatively process my grief, I engaged in weekly active music therapy alongside my MPH courses. Since all of my MPH courses were remote and asynchronous, I found myself writing many scholarly, heavily researched essays and papers day after day, week after week. I had to keep up with assigned textbook readings and, also, gather, review, and dissect many peer-reviewed, evidence-based research articles (on various public health-related topics)—with a quick turnaround—in order to complete my assignments which were predominantly due on a weekly basis. All of my efforts were rewarded. I currently have an overall GPA of 3.71 for the MPH program and I am now only two courses away from completing this degree.

With regards to my medical licensing exam, because of how well I was doing in the MPH program, I had become a little too well-versed in public health. Since public health topics only make up about 10% of my medical licensing exam, I decided that it would be in my best interest to start refreshing my knowledge base for the remainder of the exam. I started by completing a daylong, high-yield exam review course, in late February 2026, and then I eventually made arrangements with my medical school to take a more comprehensive, month-long exam review course in June 2026.

Additionally, somewhere in between my transition from the fall 2025 to the spring 2026 semester, several internal adjustments had to be made to my student account, by my school, since I was in this new joint degree program. What was explained to me was that I would now have a tuition balance due for the school. This was in December 2025 and, once again, since I had already been looking for paid work opportunities, I thought that I would be able to secure something during the earlier part of 2026 but I was not able to—and I am still currently looking for work.

In order to be packaged for financial aid, you must be registered for billable credits (or credits which generate a financial charge). Since I completed my last billable medical degree requirement (my last clinical rotation) in April 2025 and I had registered for all of my remaining billable MPH courses during the spring 2026 term, I am not eligible to receive financial aid for the current academic year. Additionally, after making inquiries, I learned that students were not permitted to take any additional electives beyond their degree requirements. Furthermore, not being able to secure work has made things more complex as I try to complete my last remaining joint degree requirements: my medical licensing exam (which does not bear any billable credits) and my two remaining MPH courses (from my spring 2026 registration) which are currently in progress.

As planned, I completed the high-yield, live comprehensive exam review course by the end of June 2026 and, thankfully, it was of no cost to medical students at my medical school. I had originally set a goal to clear my practice tests by July/August and then take my medical licensing exam by late August/early September. However, at the beginning of July, I did not have enough money to cover my rent. For both July and August, I had to use a popular buy now, pay later loan to pay for my rent since, at the time, I could still afford to make the lower monthly payments and I needed the last bit of money I had left to carry me through the rest of the month. I have continued to look for both work and scholarship opportunities throughout this time but I have had to wrestle with the fact that I am now in my sixth year—the final year of the six year policy for degree completion of medical school—and I cannot afford to pay for my medical licensing exam.

I am grateful for the few loved ones who have helped me in more recent months. September was the first time I could not afford to pay rent at all (by any means), followed by October. Without a source of income from work, scholarships, or financial aid, the money has “dried up.” I currently have less than $200 to my name, I am two months behind on rent (and other expenses), and I am still completing degree requirements—with the exception of my medical licensing exam. I, also, have an outstanding school bill for tuition and a maintenance of matriculation fee for the joint degree program and, thus, have a financial hold on my school account which prevents graduation.

It was very hard to write down and share what I have been going through. There were even a few moments where I had to pause for tears because I was recalling the painful details of my father’s final years of life. Within the field of medicine, being vulnerable is generally not encouraged because, unfortunately, you will most often be viewed as “weak”—depending on your medical training/work environment. Throughout the years, I have shared my vulnerabilities with peers and mentees, both pre-medical and medical students, in an effort to encourage them and optimize their educational and career outcomes. I am proud of every single peer and mentee who has gone on ahead of me in their journey to become physicians and other health professionals (and I have had the privilege of attending most of their graduations and wholeheartedly cheering them on).

Although my father is no longer here, and will not be able to attend my own medical school graduation and cheer me on, I would like to still have the opportunity to walk across the stage and become a doctor. My family is not currently in the financial position to further assist me so I am requesting your help. I have detailed what I specifically need financial assistance with above (under the brief version of my story). No amount is too small. Thank you for taking the time to read through my story and thank you in advance for your help. God bless you.

DISCLAIMER (Reminder): I am grateful for any help you are able to provide and no amount is too small. There is a single transaction fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 that is automatically deducted from each donation by GoFundMe. For example, if you donate $10, GoFundMe will keep $0.58 and I will receive $9.42. Additionally, please know that, when making your donation, there is an optional “tip” feature which has been preset to a certain percentage by GoFundMe and that all “tips” go directly to the GoFundMe platform for their operation costs. Recipients on GoFundMe do not receive any portion of the “tips.” If you do not wish to tip the GoFundMe platform, you must slide the percentage to “$0 (0%)” or simply adjust it to the desired amount you would like to give directly to the GoFundMe platform. I am including this disclaimer because I have seen complaints online about donors having more money than desired deducted from their accounts due to the “tips” preset and I would prefer for you to only donate whatever amount you would like to donate without any surprises.