Help Needed To Continue College - Robert Kirchner
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Hello! My name is Robert Kirchner. Today I must ask for your help. Due to a series of complications thanks to Covid-19 I was put in a situation where I do not have all the necessary funds to continue attending my university.
My major, and my passion, is in language and linguistics, specifically, of the Japanese language. Two years ago, I applied to several colleges and was denied because my high school grades were, well, awful with a total GPA of 2.6. Temple University told me, that I should go somewhere else for my freshman year, do better, then re-apply. So I did just that.
I went to Rowan University for two semesters thanks to my parents and federal financial aid. In my first semester I managed to get near perfect grades for a GPA for 3.92 making the Dean's List. The following semester, I did even better, with a 4.0 for that semester, which put me on the next level above the Dean's List: The Scholar's of Excellence. This also meant I had a cumulative GPA of 3.97. I went from barely passing by in high school to the guy everyone turned to for help in college. I was also very active in clubs. I was a very active member of the Fencing Team, the Japanese Culture Club, Aikido and Martial Arts Club. In March, Covid-19 closed down my university and my classes went online. I finished my year at Rowan with that near perfect 3.97 GPA and re-applied to Temple. This is where things got complicated, because of Covid-19.
I applied to Temple for a very specific reason. They have a campus in Tokyo, Japan. If I want to get a good education on this subject, there is no better place. However, because of the covid-19 pandemic the entire process got messed up. My new grades and GPA got me into Temple and the Japan campus no problem, however, because of the pandemic there were travel restrictions in place. This meant the normal process wasn't going to go as it typically does. Normally, you pay your visa application fee, matriculation fee, tuition and housing upfront as part of an "advance payment" for that first semester, then you go to Tokyo and are a student at Temple's Japan Campus. This year however, things happened differently.
The part of the application process involving visa's was stopped entirely. Because of this, they allowed students who had not yet payed their matriculation or visa fee's to attend classes online and the "advance payment" would be paid at a later date. At first, I thought this was a blessing. It gave me more time to try and find alternative financial aid options as federal financial aid wouldn't cover the whole payment. However, through a mix of bad luck and the pandemic, many alternative institutions were not accepting loans or giving out scholarships.
To make matters worse, the restrictions on student travel were lifted just the other day, and now there is a new timeline thrust upon me that isn't what I initially thought. They need me to come to Japan earlier than the next semester so I can quarantine in December, and have it finish in January. This means the advance payment will be due sometime around the end of October or very early November. This was very short notice.
I have been trying for the last few months to get a loan on my own or find a co-signer but with no luck. And now I am running out of time.
What I will Spend the Funds On:
Any funds raised through this will go directly into this advance payment, which means it will cover:
Tuition
Housing
Matriculation Fee
Visa Fee
I do not have much time to obtain the money.
They gave an approximate range of the last week of October or the first week of November for when they will send the bill to me. At which time I will have about one week to pay. I have some savings of my own and my parents are helping me to the best they can, but as things are right now, it will not be enough.
This is the last thing I wanted to do. I don't normally like asking for help, but this is a different situation. If you can help in any way, it will go such a long way to allowing me to continue my education and pursuing my dreams. Words cannot express how grateful I would be for any help at all.
Sharing this around any social media would be greatly appreciated as well.
Thank you very much.
My major, and my passion, is in language and linguistics, specifically, of the Japanese language. Two years ago, I applied to several colleges and was denied because my high school grades were, well, awful with a total GPA of 2.6. Temple University told me, that I should go somewhere else for my freshman year, do better, then re-apply. So I did just that.
I went to Rowan University for two semesters thanks to my parents and federal financial aid. In my first semester I managed to get near perfect grades for a GPA for 3.92 making the Dean's List. The following semester, I did even better, with a 4.0 for that semester, which put me on the next level above the Dean's List: The Scholar's of Excellence. This also meant I had a cumulative GPA of 3.97. I went from barely passing by in high school to the guy everyone turned to for help in college. I was also very active in clubs. I was a very active member of the Fencing Team, the Japanese Culture Club, Aikido and Martial Arts Club. In March, Covid-19 closed down my university and my classes went online. I finished my year at Rowan with that near perfect 3.97 GPA and re-applied to Temple. This is where things got complicated, because of Covid-19.
I applied to Temple for a very specific reason. They have a campus in Tokyo, Japan. If I want to get a good education on this subject, there is no better place. However, because of the covid-19 pandemic the entire process got messed up. My new grades and GPA got me into Temple and the Japan campus no problem, however, because of the pandemic there were travel restrictions in place. This meant the normal process wasn't going to go as it typically does. Normally, you pay your visa application fee, matriculation fee, tuition and housing upfront as part of an "advance payment" for that first semester, then you go to Tokyo and are a student at Temple's Japan Campus. This year however, things happened differently.
The part of the application process involving visa's was stopped entirely. Because of this, they allowed students who had not yet payed their matriculation or visa fee's to attend classes online and the "advance payment" would be paid at a later date. At first, I thought this was a blessing. It gave me more time to try and find alternative financial aid options as federal financial aid wouldn't cover the whole payment. However, through a mix of bad luck and the pandemic, many alternative institutions were not accepting loans or giving out scholarships.
To make matters worse, the restrictions on student travel were lifted just the other day, and now there is a new timeline thrust upon me that isn't what I initially thought. They need me to come to Japan earlier than the next semester so I can quarantine in December, and have it finish in January. This means the advance payment will be due sometime around the end of October or very early November. This was very short notice.
I have been trying for the last few months to get a loan on my own or find a co-signer but with no luck. And now I am running out of time.
What I will Spend the Funds On:
Any funds raised through this will go directly into this advance payment, which means it will cover:
Tuition
Housing
Matriculation Fee
Visa Fee
I do not have much time to obtain the money.
They gave an approximate range of the last week of October or the first week of November for when they will send the bill to me. At which time I will have about one week to pay. I have some savings of my own and my parents are helping me to the best they can, but as things are right now, it will not be enough.
This is the last thing I wanted to do. I don't normally like asking for help, but this is a different situation. If you can help in any way, it will go such a long way to allowing me to continue my education and pursuing my dreams. Words cannot express how grateful I would be for any help at all.
Sharing this around any social media would be greatly appreciated as well.
Thank you very much.
Organizer
Robert Kirchner
Organizer
Maple Shade Township, NJ