Help Niya Graduate From UC Berkeley

Hello everyone. This is very difficult for me to talk about, but I think it's time I say something. I am seeking help to complete my degree at UC Berkeley. I have some fees to pay off. The fees are from an ambulance bill in 2019 from my leg injury and co-pays from doctors' visits after the fact. I've managed to get a chunk of the fees down, but I need help getting the rest of it down in time so I can (hopefully) graduate in Spring 2024.

In 2019 I was met with a barrage of traumatic situations that threw me off track from getting my degree from UC Berkeley. I'd planned on getting my degree, some of you may have even seen me walk the stage. I thought I was going to get it too because I'd only had 3 classes left, I was really close to the end and thought I was going to get it that year, but that didn't happen. In the beginning of the year, I almost broke my leg and was on crutches for a few months, struggling in classes from the injury. Then, shortly after that, I had to put my family cat of 14 years down due to him having cancer. Then--and I'm not even joking--3 weeks after that, my father was murdered. It was too much on me as a 22 year old and I tried to hold it all together, but honestly things were falling apart, and I started failing classes. It got overwhelming to the point that I finally said enough was enough and I just decided to take time off from school and heal. During that time off, however, I did not experience ease. I was overcome with grief. I ended up becoming homeless after moving from my college dorm and lived in shelters for 2 years where I was met with constant violence and my safety was compromised several times. The stress from that ended up putting me in the hospital several times and at one point I experienced severe withdrawal from medication and reality due to being so stressed out and was hospitalized for months. I kept quiet about all this because I didn't want people to know I was hurting. I was also taking classes while in the shelter to finish my degree at Cal but I kept failing them. It wasn't until 2022 that things started changing around. I finally found a stable place to live. I started taking classes again and started getting much better grades, and now I can honestly say that I am ready to go back and finish my degree. I only have 2 more classes left (I'm taking one at community college this fall) and I really want to finish my goal because it's been my lifelong dream to complete college. Right now, I'm working on being readmitted to the university while also taking community college classes. Cal has a rule that all student fees must be paid off before re-enrolling. If you're wondering why I've needed help for so long these past couple of years, this is why. There are other things that happened to me in my time off from college, that I would speak about but it's just too painful to recall, so I'd rather not say.

Thanks for reading.