My name is Katerina C, I’m a 24 year old student trying to finish their degree after having my education interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, I was attending college in New York City when COVID prematurely ended my second semester. In order to support myself, I had to un-enroll from school and work full-time in retail throughout the entirety of the pandemic. During that time I contracted COVID twice which lead to long COVID and chronic health issues. Not only did I not receive my degree, but I also didn’t receive COVID assistance benefits as I was working. This greatly affected my ability to build a savings and the lack of a bachelors degree has affected my job prospects.

Despite this set-back, in the five years since I have been able to attend community college, and I received my associates degree with a 3.75 GPA while still working full-time. Currently, I am looking to return to college to finish my bachelors degree and I plan on attending SUNY Purchase in the fall of 2025. I’ve been able to reduce a majority of the costs through scholarships, however, as stated before, COVID made building a savings near impossible and I find myself still needing a little more support to pursue my education. I am writing this today to ask for your support in helping me cover some of the final expenses necessary to attend school. The final goal amount of $3,000 would look to cover final costs such as my plane ticket from California to New York, food for the first year, and the ability to ship my car to New York–– I still need to work while in school and need my car for transport.

I know times are tough for everyone financially, so I appreciate you even reading this–– as someone who was in the world firsthand during the pandemic, I understand all our communities were greatly affected. It’s difficult to ask for help, especially with the current state of the world, but any assistance you could provide would be greatly appreciated.