In March 2020, Jissela was placed with us through a foster care placement. In the 3 (ish) years that she has lived with us, Jissela has worked at her schoolwork while also working a part-time job. For her Junior and Senior years, Jissela was dual-enrolled at Durham Technical Community College, where she earned 22 college credit hours. Despite English being her second language, she did well and graduated high school this year with a 3.4 GPA. And that includes her college courses! We thought our local foster care DSS would help pay for college along with FAFSA financial aid, however Jissela is in a legal gray area.

Originally from Honduras, Jissela was brought to America when she was eleven years old. She is working her way through the slow immigration process and while she can work here legally, has a ss#, and all the appropriate paperwork, we are still waiting on her green card. We applied for it back in December 2021, but the visa backlog is long and we were told it could take 3-8 years, even with approval. Without that green card Jissela is unable to access the majority of the services that DSS would provide for kids in their 18-21 foster care program, which includes things like tuition assistance and scholarships. Additionally, Jissela is not eligible for any federal financial aid as her type of green card isn't recognized as an eligible non-citizen (something we are hoping will change this year with the help of the Stop the Bottleneck coalition). This means no federally funded financial aid, grants, or loans. We are also not able to take out any loans on her behalf.

This has come as a bit of a surprise. We truly thought she would be eligible for some type of financial aid and were also reassured that Jissela could get foster care funding as well, or at the very least a scholarship through them. This has all turned out to be untrue. We did apply for quite a few scholarships, 36 to be exact, but received nothing. The competition is stiff and she was ineligible for several of them, although we didn't know that when we applied.

This has come as a blow to Jissela as she really wants to go to college and was very excited to attend the University of North Carolina - Greensboro in the fall. She's already accepted, sent in her application fee, and will attend the SOAR information session the week of June 25 to sign up for classes. There is just no way for her or us to pay. Maybe if we had a bit more time to save up, but we certainly didn't plan to have to pay for a 4-year college out-of-pocket.

The $12,000 goal would pay for a year at UNCG if she commutes. It is one hour each way to school and the plan would be to attend classes two or three times a week. This isn't the full college experience we were hoping for her. She's already backed out of getting a roommate, but we still want that for her if she can. We would love her to live on campus, not have to worry about work or commuting, and focus on school. $21,000 would pay for an entire year, living on campus. That is our stretch goal.

We are only raising enough for one year for several reasons:

1. We are hoping that the Stop the Bottleneck coalition will be successful in changing the FAFSA rules so that the Special Immigrant

Juvenile Status is recognized as an eligible non-citizen for the next school year.

2. This may give us the time we need to get Jissela's green card.

3. Jissela will be eligible for many returning student scholarships that UNCG offers to 2nd year (and beyond) students.

4. It will give us time to apply for additional scholarships throughout the year.

5. It will give me and my husband time to save up money to help pay for school beyond this upcoming year.

DSS (foster care) and LINKS cannot help beyond the monthly stipend they provide. She is not eligible for any of their other services that most foster youth in the 18-21 program are given.

Jissela, like most teenagers, has a lot of hopes, dreams, and aspirations for the future. She is considering going into business and specifically real estate. She's already done a job shadow with a Realtor. She is also flirting with the idea of majoring in Kinesiology Jissela as she has a strong interest in fitness and sports.

Jissela has a bright future ahead of her and we are hoping that you can help us get her there.