Help Jo Finish Their BFA at SCAD

Hi there! My name is Jo, and I'm a senior finishing up my BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design from St. Louis, MO. When I first entered university, a number of catastrophes both in the world and in my personal life set me back a fair bit. Between COVID-19, familial fallout, and extreme fatigue due to multiple moves a year, I've struggled to finish my degree and stay afloat while doing it. I'm finally entering my last year in university, riding high off my finishing the previous term on the Dean's List. However, the financial complications of pursuing a degree in the arts has finally caught up to me.

Degrees from private arts universities in the United States aren't cheap, and me and my mom knew about this going into the matter. What we weren't expecting, however, was the fallout on my dad's side of the family, and the savings account that my entire family had been donating to for years that was all to go to my higher education... not actually existing, as my father had been pocketing it all since I was a child. With very little to her name and with me no longer being welcome in my father's home, my mom opted to support my endeavors in the arts anyway, having given up her own dream of being a traveling dancer when I was born.

Over the years, we've done everything possible to minimize costs. For the bulk of my sophomore and junior years, I've done all classes online to avoid room and board costs, thrifting art supplies, hustling private commissions to cover living costs. The bill is unfortunately stacked high— around $180,000 USD after my last classes this year are done. Our loans are all federal, but forgiveness or lowered repayment seems unlikely, and as my classes wrap up, I'm stepping into a creative industry on the downturn, with even my teachers and mentors struggling to find good paid work outside of their adjunct teaching positions. The first bills arrive for my mother later this fall, and they've already started knocking for me.

Without assistance, I won't be able to both finish my degree and pay back the accumulated debt. I actually have less than a full year's worth of work left, but I've decided to stretch out my remaining classes over the next few terms to grant me more time to work and fit in the course schedule. After five years, to come out of the other side of this process with no degree would be heartbreaking. I've drawn until my hands were covered in blisters, worked until the long hours of the night for years, and had more than one breakdown questioning if it was all worth it. I want nothing more than to finish my degree, and to step into the world an artist!