Help Emma Burton Stay at Eckerd College

Emma needs your help to stay at Eckerd College. Two years ago, hundreds of people came together to help Richmond native and Freeman graduate, Emma Burton, overcome the incredibly challenging circumstances of becoming homeless during her senior year of high school. While we are delighted to report that Emma has had a stellar freshman and sophomore year at Eckerd College, she will not be able to complete her degree without the community’s help. Emma hopes to complete her studies and become an art therapist to help others who have faced challenges like hers.

Thanks to the incredible generosity of so many, enough money was raised to cover the tuition and board for Emma's first two years at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg Florida, and she has taken full advantage of her time there!

• She is on track to join the Phi Beta Kappa honor society

• She has been invited by the faculty to join a psychology-based research team

• She has been asked to help interview new faculty for the Human Development department

• She has made the Dean’s list every semester; (see the Eckerd Dean's Lists at https://www.eckerd.edu/registrar/ )

• And she has a cumulative GPA of 3.96 (out of 4.00!!).

Now that Emma's junior year is about to start, we’re humbly asking everyone who cares about her to consider making another small donation, but this time we’re asking with tangible proof of Emma’s incredible personal and academic success that this support has made possible! As always, all funds go directly to Emma for use on tuition, board, supplies and travel expenses.

If you are unable to participate financially, we hope that you will consider sharing this campaign with others who might be able to help Emma. Because of you, a wonderful young lady has been given a chance to not only elevate from a very difficult situation, but to flourish beyond our highest hopes and expectations. From Emma and everyone that cares about her, thank you so much for helping to secure her future!

With immense gratitude,

Emma’s Friends

Continue reading to understand the challenges that Emma has overcome as outlined in the initial Gofundme campaign in 2021:

18 year old Emma Burton is an intelligent, creative and kind young woman who has overcome many obstacles to forge a successful high school career and earn admittance to multiple colleges. Living in a single-parent household for most of her high school years, Emma has balanced her schoolwork and extracurricular activities while also dealing with issues that have required Child Protective Services to intervene on several occasions. Those issues came to a head on April 8, 2021, when Emma was abandoned by her mother at a Jacksonville, Florida gas station and forbidden to return to her Richmond, Virginia apartment. Though newly 18, Emma is still in high school, and after years of surviving a challenging home life, she is suddenly homeless.

One of the most remarkable things about Emma is that she has borne all of this adversity with incredible grace and optimism. To know her is to wonder how such a delightful person could endure so much and turn into such an amazing young lady. Through no fault of her own, she has been denied the stability that so many of us take for granted. That’s why the many people who care about her want to do what we can to help her.

Emma’s heart’s desire is to attend Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, where she plans to major in Human Development. Her goal is to become an Art Therapist which will allow her to combine her artistic talent with her passion for helping others. She has already received a four-year merit scholarship from Eckerd, making it the most affordable of all the colleges to which she’s been accepted, and she has taken the necessary steps to have herself declared independent by Henrico County and the federal government, thereby increasing the size of grants and loans in her federal financial aid package. Despite this assistance, she will still be $16,000 a year short of the amount needed to cover her tuition and board. Given the sheer number of people who know and love her, we believe that we can come together to bridge that financial gap, asking a lot of people to give a little. All funds raised will go directly to Emma for use on tuition, board, supplies and travel expenses.

If you are not able to participate financially, please consider sharing Emma’s story and forwarding this page to as many people as you can. This is an opportunity to help a young lady who very much needs and deserves our help. She’s a very real person who has overcome some very real challenges.