Helping Avery Get Through University

Greetings to all those that this reaches,

This is Martha Crawford LCSW, and I am asking for help in supporting an amazing young woman who has come into our lives in the past three years and who needs a community gathered around her to support her in her goals.

Let me tell you some of Avery's story:

When she was young, her parents divorced - and then when Avery was eleven, her step-father died in a highway accident and her mother passed away from fatal skin cancer shortly afterwards.

Avery moved in with her biological father, unprepared to raise a child, who had significant struggles with substance abuse and was extremely volatile.

Avery assumed a significant amount of responsibility for maintaining the household at a very young age - managing the household finances and correspondence, negotiating with landlords and working many hours to help pay her own tuition at a local private Catholic school. Despite the chaos surrounding her, Avery was able to maintain excellent grades in school, hold down a job, and consistently volunteer to help others in her community.

It was at this time that my own teenagers met Avery and formed a friendship with her. Avery's kindness and resilience were apparent from the first moment we met her.

Avery's father became increasingly unstable and abusive, and Avery did her best to keep up appearances and her functioning at school, but eventually reported the abuse to a school counselor who contacted New Mexico's Child Youth and Families Department (child welfare services) who arranged emergency housing for her with a classmate's family - and then promptly closed her case - offering no other services, follow up or support.

It became clear that the family who had taken her in on an emergency basis was not a viable long-term placement, and at that time, I became involved in trying to get some safety, housing and support to Avery.

Avery was, through all of this chaos, able to graduate from high school with honors and a 4.3 grade point average and received her Catholic school's Founder's Award for the student who most exemplifies Franciscan values.

Avery is now attending the University of San Francisco, which is an excellent fit for her values and is also the school that offered her the most significant aid package. She has taken out the maximum federal loans that are available to her. Avery works multiple jobs over the summer and part-time throughout the school year. She has also earned some additional merit scholarships based on her excellent freshman year grades. She is studying biology and plans a career in the sciences.

Despite her hard work, Avery is still without sufficient funds for her educational and life expenses for the next three years.

Listen: If all of us who love Avery had the means to simply pay all of uncovered expenses we would do so. None of us on Team Avery have sufficient funds among us to support her in the way we all believe she deserves.

Her current estimated out-of-pocket expenses after grants and scholarships are $34,000 a year ($136,000 over four years). . My husband and I are committing to providing $3,000- $4000 a year to help take some of the pressure off as have other GFM team members. (If we experience some kind of windfall, we will be thrilled to provide her with all that we can!)

The shortfall is about $19,500 a year for school, room and board and medical expenses, computing, travel home for school breaks, clothing, incidentals, entertainment, transportation, psychotherapy, and overdue medical and dental care.

We hope to create a little financial cushion should emergencies arise. She has no other safety net than the one we are all cobbling together.

Some of these funds will be used immediately to pay school bills. The rest of these funds will be reserved for her educational needs over the next three years. If she receives additional aid or scholarships we will adjust our goals to reflect that.

We are hoping that the larger community can help us in subsidizing her education, reducing the student debt that she will accrue - especially as she has dreams of graduate studies - and we believe that she will continue to excel if she can get some small portion of the support that every kid deserves.

Any amount you can contribute will be appreciated.

There are several responsible adults available to Avery to support her in making prudent financial decisions (she is already very responsible with her savings, earnings and spending).

All funds will be applied directly toward Avery's necessary educational and living expenses.

Please help us to help an amazing young woman, who has protected her heart through more challenges than many people face in a lifetime, and who has a beautiful future in front of her with the encouragement of a supportive community.

We will post updates regularly to thank you all and to show you how we are applying your donations.

We can't thank you enough for any assistance you can offer, and please share with anyone you think may be moved to help!