Hello community! If you don't know me, I am Sarah Richter and I am currently a student at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. I have had the amazing privilege to become a part of Purdue this past August, which is when I met my roommate Eden for the first time. Over the past few months, Eden has grown to be one of my best-friends and has made my introduction to the university uniquely special. In getting to know her and her life story, my admiration for her has grown and grown. Eden's life thus-far has been one of trials and tribulations most 23-year-olds have not experienced. Eden was born from her mother when she was only 15, having little support and with a father who was abusive and neglectful. Throughout Eden's childhood, she experienced the pain of this situation, which has brought about long-term difficulties, a lack of community/support, and a very broken home to this day. Currently, as she is navigating her life as an adult, she has evolved into an independent and strong individual who consistently advocates and fights for her ability to succeed despite the unfair cruelties she has experienced as a child/adolescent. She was forced to formally cut contact with her family last year, when her mother was diagnosed with a rare medical condition that pushed her to leave the family and her father expected her to take on the remaining financial contribution for a mortgage her already impoverished family could not afford. Everything that Eden had saved up for university was given to her family, and she worked full-time as a suicide prevention specialist to try to keep a roof over her family's heads. When working full time started getting in the way of school, Eden tried to advocate for herself, which ultimately resulted in her being put on the street with no family to go to for support, comfort, or even a meal while she struggled to be homeless and attend university. At Purdue, Eden is a pre-medical behavioral neuroscience major and exhibits leadership qualities that go above and beyond. To list a few, she is the founder and president of a Medical Research Club, she tutors biology and Spanish to low income students, peer mentor for other pre-med and low income students, work with anatomy and physiology courses to make them more accessible to students with disabilities, and work in a few different research labs working with topics including studying EEG markers of Major Depressive Disorder all the way to the effects of childhood trauma on the alteration of epigenetic markers. All that being said, Eden has fought bravely to get herself to where she is now, striving to succeed despite everything she has gone through. Although she is consistently accessing every resource available to them and reaching out to Purdue communities such as the LGBTQ center, Horizons for First Generation Students, etc., she is in dire need of help this upcoming semester.

Unfortunately, even with financial aid, scholarships, loans, and help from Purdue's programs, Eden finds herself in a situation where she is short of funding for the immediate semester, jeopardizing her ability to afford housing for the foreseeable future as the only home she knows is on campus at Purdue University. With no other community other than what she's found at Purdue through her colleagues and friends, Eden needs our help to continue her education. She has two and a half more semesters left and expects that for the next year and a half, she will be struggling to finish financing her education so she can apply to medical school. I ask that you might consider donating whatever you can so that Eden can continue here at Purdue. Anything helps and is greatly greatly appreciated. As someone who has had the opportunity to become close with Eden, not only is she one of the strongest people I have met, she is also one of the most genuinely kind and empathetic people I know. She has so much passion and love to spread as she aspires to work with people in the world of health-care, desiring to impact others' lives for the better. Let's help make this a continuing possibility by reaching out a helping hand!