Hello, my name is Damian Hernandez, a first-generation low-income undergraduate at Columbia University.

I am a non-traditional student striving to graduate this Fall 2021. This will be my final semester at Columbia University after a long journey that began years ago in community college.

While I have received a scholarship to help with most charges listed above, the remaining fees I cannot cover on my own. Unfortunately, I can no longer receive any more federal student loans as I have hit my limit.

Once the pandemic hit, I had to drain my savings to stay afloat, and thus I have no funds saved up to help with the remaining charges.

As a non-traditional student, my journey to get here has been long and arduous. I went from being a college dropout a decade ago to now being one semester away from graduating from an Ivy League institution, becoming the first person in my family to attend and graduate from college. I hope to finally graduate this fall and continue my education in grad school pursuing a career in neuroscience, a field I grew to love during my time at Columbia.

Any amount that you can help with, no matter how small, will be extremely helpful and greatly appreciated.

Even if you cannot directly help, thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

-Damian