Help Rayan pay for school

Hi,

My name is Rayan Outtara and I am a freshman at Virginia Tech. I immigrated to America in 2014 and barely spoke English. I was raised in a loving household, but as freshly immigrated residents, we faced many challenges. I excelled in high school, and was thrilled to attend Virginia Tech in the fall of 2022.

I have been facing financial difficulties over the past 4 months. My parents and I were on a monthly payment plan, and would pay 6,200 each month. On August 30th I woke up and saw an email from USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) which jeopardized my abilities to stay within our borders without hiring a lawyer. This put an immense amount of stress on both my parents and especially myself. We used my saved college funds to pay for a lawyer to keep my residency in the United States.

This created many difficulties not only financially but in my mental health as well. In late August, my Grandmother received notice of a Malignant cancerous tumor in her breast. My parents dug into my college funds again to help pay her hospital bills. At this point in September, we were unable to make the next month's payment.

This takes me to today, where I have been denied a loan due to the prioritization of American citizens when coming to student loans.

My family and I need 19 thousand dollars by tomorrow 1/23/2023 by 11:59. This would pay off my total student loans from last semester, and allow me to move forwards with my education. I have reached out to my student loans office at Virginia Tech, and received near to no help on the situation, and in quotes “you will not be allowed to stay here if you do not get your money in full by Monday.”

Thank you for reading my message, and understanding the stress my family and I have been through in the past months. I truly have made some life-long friends and memories at the life-changing college. I am looking forward to being the 1st college graduate in my family, and this may only be a slight bump in the road of life.