Barcelona or bust! I, Lilly Mayer am enthusiastically aiming to fundraise $20,000 for a once-in-a-lifetime Semester Study Abroad in Barcelona for Fall 2025.

The primary program fee is $10,000 by itself (which includes class tuition and dorm-style apartment lodging). But this program fee does not even include the basics: it doesn’t include textbooks, airfare between Barcelona San Francisco, the 4 months of food and necessities I will need for the semester, or local transportation to and from school or within Barcelona.

I have been working at Peet’s Coffee most diligently this semester to save up and help my Mom however I can to pay for these expenses, so we don’t need to take out student loans (after all, 4-year university is right around the corner! UCLA, here I come).

Most excitedly, I have been passionately working (and fundraising) to afford a few extra dream excursions: a few side-trips to other bucket-list destinations in continental Europe proximal to Barcelona. These include long weekend trips to Madrid and Valencia (with my student cohort), celebrating the Thanksgiving Holiday holiday in Rome, and then celebrating my 20th Birthday over winter break in Paris, before I return home to the US for Christmas.

My semester in Barcelona and my independent dream adventures to surrounding areas…are opportunities of a lifetime. As many of you know, my high school years were extremely stressful. I was not afforded the opportunity to even participate in normal high school, or allowed to enjoy the simple pleasure of being a teenager with a normal school experience. In college, I have dedicated myself 100% to building a solid future: I am a working student, I am an honors scholar and take my grades very seriously. My family and I look at this semester abroad not just as an enrichment experience— but as a well-deserved breath of fresh air. To me, this semesters is a reward for years of extremely hard work, performed under extraordinary circumstances… and an opportunity to just be a young woman for once, on the brink of something wonderful. It’s a moment to appreciate how far I’ve come, with a whole, amazing life ahead of me.

I cannot tell you how much your support and contributions mean to me, and to my family. We cannot do it without you.

Thank You.

BARCELONA FALL 2025 STUDY ABROAD BROCHURE