Feb 14, 2026

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Avi is my 21-year-old son (he just turned 21 a couple of weeks ago!). He was acutely Lead-poisoned when he was just 7 months old. He is the reason I do everything I do.

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Avi has a diagnosed permanent brain injury due to Lead poisoning. Although Avi has an above-average I.Q., if you’ve seen my film, you would know that his visual memory is in the 4th percentile as a result of the brain injury. We have spent every moment of the past 21 years to try to make sure that he would have every possible opportunity in spite of his brain injury.

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While Special Needs accommodations are always a challenge — and something we need to constantly fight for each year — his disability supports [beyond the family’s support, in any ways we can provide] include speech-to-text and text-to-speech software, and extra time to complete some quizzes, exams, and homework assignments (especially assignments and exams that involve a lot of hand-written notes — as hand writing equations / science / math is very difficult and unusually time-consuming for him, with his particular brain injury).

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Avi has always been an extraordinarily hard-working and self-driven student, determined to exceed his neuropsychological profile’s predictive developmental trajectory…and even our wildest dreams! He is now in his 4th semester at The University of Hawaii at Manoa getting a Bachelor’s Degree with a Major in Astrophysics, and a Minor in Human Space Flight Technology!

In spite of his brain injury, and the significant obstacles it has created for him, his academic diligence and self-imposed intense work-ethic are remarkable…he possesses a thorough understanding of the complex subject matter [typically better, in fact, than a majority of his fellow students — which we know because we discovered that multiple professors tend to comically swivel to look at Avi eventually - as the reliable source of the correct/full answer, whenever none of his classmates have been able to answer a question!]

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Avi is also currently working on a proposal for NASA (with a small team of students from his school). And has applied to internships at various space and technology programs for the summer - including NASA/JPL.

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Avi is getting straight A’s at school — a solid 4.0 GPA; he made Dean’s List for each semester that he has been full-time [you need to be full-time to be on the Dean’s list, and — because of his brain injury — he can’t always do more than 8 or 9 credits, depending on the course-load!]

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Unfortunately, by lowering his course load to 8 or 9 credits to accommodate challenges related to his disabilities (a lowered credit load that would make it possible for him to take classes like Accelerated Calculus and earn straight As), the school took away his partial scholarship (in full) — because (technically) he was no longer a full time student and he therefore became ineligible for the scholarship. This is just one example of the disability discrimination Avi has faced in his academic journey (if a student with a diagnosed permanent brain injury needs to take fewer classes in order to succeed, they should not have their entire merit scholarship revoked!)

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Our cost for him to go to school for the next three months (February, March, and April 2026) is $4,857.25 per month, which includes three installment payments for this semester’s tuition; his housing for March, April, & May; and his meals (Hawaii is sooooo expensive!)

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Two years ago, when we made the commitment for Avi to go to school at UH Manoa, we were earning enough to cover the payments…and then the impact of the smear campaign against me & my business started really hitting us financially (please read the Hollywood Reporter article published earlier this week if you want to know more about that).

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Interestingly enough, now, shortly after two of the main smear websites were taken down, my business’ income is starting to recover — and we should have enough to begin covering his college payments (and rent and meals) again starting in late-April, but we don’t now.

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Respectful of our unexpected / new financial situation, Avi spent the first part of the current semester (Winter/Spring 2026) applying to transfer schools where he might be granted a scholarship (and where at least housing and food costs are a fraction of the cost of what they are in Hawaii]. He’s already been accepted into one school in the UK, so he is working on this as “Plan B” if we cannot afford to have him continue at school in Hawaii.

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We’re setting the goal for this GoFundMe at $4,857.25 to cover the total payments due by the end of February. If we reach that, we will increase the goal to cover March’s payments, too.

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We really want to keep this brilliant kiddo in school, but we simply cannot afford to do so right now. Please help if you can. You can contribute here, you can v-e-n-m-o to Avi directly at @TheTerranInformed — or if you have ideas about scholarships or other funding that we might apply for, we would love to hear about that, too!

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We chose NOT to get federal loans this year — as #1) at the time, we didn’t know our income would continue to be down so low over the past six+ months(!), and #2) Avi already had $25,000 in federal student loans from his first year at UH Manoa — and these loans are accruing interest at 9% a year (which is not what we expected, because his older brother’s college loans had just 2 to 3% interest, and did not start accruing interest until after he graduated!)

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We didn’t want to increase our debt-load, and we thought we would be able to cover the tuition / rent / & meals installment payments, but while we were able to cover his costs for Fall of 2025, we have nothing left for Winter / Spring 2026.

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Thank you for any help you may be able to provide in keeping this brilliant kiddo in school!

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Tamara Rubin

& Family

Link to the article in the Hollywood Reporter about the Smear Campaign Against My Work (Which has impacted our family's income and ability to pay Avi's tuition).