Hello, my name is John Machacek and our family was one of two families who hosted Katarina over the past two years, as she attended Oak Grove Lutheran School in Fargo, ND. I have created this fundraiser to help Katarina realize her dream of attending college in the United States (and ideally living here permanently someday). These funds will go towards her tuition, room & board.

(Photo above: Host families - Halvorsons (junior year) and Machaceks (senior year))

Katarina comes from Montenegro, a small southeastern European country on the Adriatic Sea, which was a part of what once was Yugoslavia before it became independent. The economic opportunities and personal fulfillment are scarce there, which is a big reason why she worked hard to make a change for herself and get herself to the United States and Oak Grove. Her family has little money; her father is on disability from a car accident and her mother lost her job during COVID (and was not making much in the first place). She has not been home in two years.

When you combine her family's financial situation with the difficulties for international students to earn funding for school (unable to work as a high schooler and initially into college too aside from work study; can't get student loans or grants like you can as a U.S. citizen) and the higher tuition rates for international students, this fundraiser plus the other support to date is ESSENTIAL. For many of us, getting scholarships and assistance is nice way to reduce the cost but it may not prevent us from going to college if we don't get it - we can take out loans, etc. to make it happen. With someone like Katarina, without any assistance there is no college.

Katarina has narrowed down her college to Concordia College, and for various reasons, which include:

• The school fit well with her interests in Music and Business as fields of study
• She really likes the Fargo Moorhead community and was hoping to stay here for school
• Concordia has been very helpful in their assistance in working with Katarina and Oak Grove, which includes both their staff time and the scholarship assistance
• Overall, the school academics, student life and campus seem like a good fit and they have a good international student program

Through the above mentioned Concordia scholarships, plus other scholarships and the generosity of others, it seems like her dream is a near-reality. However, there still is a gap we need to fill for this year and into next year. From what I've learned in the process, this first year is generally the biggest financial hurdle and there is often further scholarship/assistance/work study/etc. as you enter the second year and beyond.

Thank you for considering ANY support for Katarina to help change the trajectory of her life through these educational and economic opportunities in the United States.

If you want to learn a little bit more about Katarina, including her scrappy nature to play high school football last year, I will share this link of the nice Forum article (shared via gridironqueendom.com) written by Carissa Wigginton. I may share other info about her later in the updates or comments, and I encourage you to do the same if you know Katarina.