Help For The Final Year of Education
Donation protected
My name is Nikola Andric and I am a student of computer science at Missouri S&T, where I also play college basketball under the International Sports Scholarship.
The starts of my US education and basketball experience, however, date back to 2016, when I started as a student and player at Vincennes University in Indiana. Coming from a country that is miles away from the US, namely Serbia, and appreciating the experience that I was living in the US, I had always been striving to perform well both in the classroom and at the court. These efforts of mine eventually bore fruit and I managed to have a 4.0 GPA at my first college, Vincennes University, and 3.97 GPA at Missouri S&T, alongside being on the team and playing the ball around the country.
As an acknowledgement of my achievements, each semester I was getting a “Dean’s List” reward, which made me very proud of myself and motivated me to continue raising the bar for my performance.
After having graduated from Vincennes University in 2018, I got a chance to play basketball in an outstanding academic school, Missouri University of Science & Technology. This school opened many opportunities for my personal and professional development, and I am still striving to get the best out of them.
The extracurricular activities, besides basketball, that I got to be a part of and particularly enjoyed have been the initiatives run with the “Data Sig” team and Missouri S&T “Mars Rover Design” team. These two enrichened my knowledge about data sets and software development, respectively. Eventually, the Mars Robert Design team and I managed to create a software for controlling the rover, which, I believe, is very cool.
Another extracurricular activity that I am very proud of is that I am one of the youngest research assistants of CPHS (Cyber Physical Human Systems) Lab at Missouri S&T where I am implementing a platform based on MATSim (Multi Agent Transport Simulator) for testing ride-sharing algorithms.
And of course, hard work always pays off – my engagement led to getting the “Missouri S&T Scholar-Athlete Award” for academic excellence and “Dean’s List” reward for outstanding academic achievement in every semester of my schooling here.
Nevertheless, transferring to Missouri S&T from the Vincennes University went by with only 51 out of 78 credits being transferred to my academic portfolio. Now, this information might not “ring a bell” in your head, just as it did not for me nor my academic advisor and coach at the time. However, since then, we have learned that it means that I would need an additional (fifth) year of education to have my academic credit curriculum completed. In other words, since I would not be supported with the basketball scholarship for that, due to exhausting the four-year eligibility to play basketball in NCAA, as an international student, I would have to pay $45,398 for the last year of my studies (around $56,000 with taxes).
Being mindful of the economic standard of my home country, which is by far lower than in the majority of world countries, and being humble and respectful to the extensive efforts of my family to support me, this amount still remains out of our reach.
But I am not giving up. I am not sitting with my arms crossed.
I am going to graduate from Missouri S&T.
Ever since I have found myself in this situation, I have been working hard to secure the funds needed. I managed to get the Residential Assistant (RA) position that would cover my room and board expenses. Additionally, I am working at the Missouri S&T computer science and police department.
Regardless, though, being an international student, I am facing many restrictions to how I could make money in the United States. For instance, I am not allowed to work outside of campus, and if I work on campus, I am allowed to work 20h/week.
I am giving my best to stay great in the school and still find a way to collect the funds and complete my education.
There are no words that can express my appreciation for your help.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
The starts of my US education and basketball experience, however, date back to 2016, when I started as a student and player at Vincennes University in Indiana. Coming from a country that is miles away from the US, namely Serbia, and appreciating the experience that I was living in the US, I had always been striving to perform well both in the classroom and at the court. These efforts of mine eventually bore fruit and I managed to have a 4.0 GPA at my first college, Vincennes University, and 3.97 GPA at Missouri S&T, alongside being on the team and playing the ball around the country.
As an acknowledgement of my achievements, each semester I was getting a “Dean’s List” reward, which made me very proud of myself and motivated me to continue raising the bar for my performance.
After having graduated from Vincennes University in 2018, I got a chance to play basketball in an outstanding academic school, Missouri University of Science & Technology. This school opened many opportunities for my personal and professional development, and I am still striving to get the best out of them.
The extracurricular activities, besides basketball, that I got to be a part of and particularly enjoyed have been the initiatives run with the “Data Sig” team and Missouri S&T “Mars Rover Design” team. These two enrichened my knowledge about data sets and software development, respectively. Eventually, the Mars Robert Design team and I managed to create a software for controlling the rover, which, I believe, is very cool.
Another extracurricular activity that I am very proud of is that I am one of the youngest research assistants of CPHS (Cyber Physical Human Systems) Lab at Missouri S&T where I am implementing a platform based on MATSim (Multi Agent Transport Simulator) for testing ride-sharing algorithms.
And of course, hard work always pays off – my engagement led to getting the “Missouri S&T Scholar-Athlete Award” for academic excellence and “Dean’s List” reward for outstanding academic achievement in every semester of my schooling here.
Nevertheless, transferring to Missouri S&T from the Vincennes University went by with only 51 out of 78 credits being transferred to my academic portfolio. Now, this information might not “ring a bell” in your head, just as it did not for me nor my academic advisor and coach at the time. However, since then, we have learned that it means that I would need an additional (fifth) year of education to have my academic credit curriculum completed. In other words, since I would not be supported with the basketball scholarship for that, due to exhausting the four-year eligibility to play basketball in NCAA, as an international student, I would have to pay $45,398 for the last year of my studies (around $56,000 with taxes).
Being mindful of the economic standard of my home country, which is by far lower than in the majority of world countries, and being humble and respectful to the extensive efforts of my family to support me, this amount still remains out of our reach.
But I am not giving up. I am not sitting with my arms crossed.
I am going to graduate from Missouri S&T.
Ever since I have found myself in this situation, I have been working hard to secure the funds needed. I managed to get the Residential Assistant (RA) position that would cover my room and board expenses. Additionally, I am working at the Missouri S&T computer science and police department.
Regardless, though, being an international student, I am facing many restrictions to how I could make money in the United States. For instance, I am not allowed to work outside of campus, and if I work on campus, I am allowed to work 20h/week.
I am giving my best to stay great in the school and still find a way to collect the funds and complete my education.
There are no words that can express my appreciation for your help.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Organizer
Nikola Andric
Organizer
Rolla, MO
