Help me Graduate!
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Hello Everyone,
My name is Roberta Montag, I'm a 22 year old international student from Brazil at San Diego State University.
My intention with creating this Go Fund Me is to be able to afford the next two semesters at my university and finally be able to graduate, so I think it will be reasonable to start by telling my story.
I grew up in a middle class family in São Paulo, Brazil with a single mother and the help of my aunt. My dad passed away from cancer when I was 6 years old and since then my mom and my aunt did everything in their power to raise me in the best environment they could provide. We lived in São Paulo, the most expensive city of Brazil, with under than R$3000,00 reais ($1,000) per month - income we got from the rent of a parking lot my dad left me when he passed away - paying for private school plus all the living expenses.
Long story short, when I turned 18 years old and it was time to start applying for universities in Brazil, I had a realization that would change the entire course of my life: I wanted to study at a university in the U.S. Even though I certainly did not have the money to afford tuition or rent or anything basically, I insisted to know everything about the American educational system and waited for my high school graduation to finally get a low paying job and have money to at least send applications to universities and see if I'd get accepted into any.
After one year and a half of a long wait and a bureocratic process of visas, passports, and all the documents and tests required to be passed, I applied to 13 universities in total and got accepted into 8, one of them being San Diego State University. As happy as I could be, I still had a big problem to solve: how am I going to afford 4 years abroad paying out of state tuition?
The solution came after a few months when my mom and I decided to sell the parking lot that my dad left me as inherentance, which was also our only source of income. We sold it to a real state company to an amount that was going to be paid in monthly installments in the course of 4 years.
After two years receving the amount agreed, the company simply stopped paying the installments because they claimed that Brazil was facing a financial crisis and therefore their business was suffering. However, they garanteed that we should not be worried because they would pay on the following month. We heard the same story for the following months to come without getting paid at all, and finally decided to go to court.
It's been two years that the judicial process is ongoing and it's been two years since we have no source of income at all and no prediction to when this is finally going to be solved.
My mom still managed to support me abroad for the following year and a half to come, paying for all my tuition and living expenses. My aunt sold an appartment she had bought from her saving of almost 10 years just so I could finish school, and I did everything possible to drastically lower my expenses.
However, I still have two semesters left to complete and no one else to ask help from. Since I am an international student, I'm not allowed to take on loans in the U.S and Brazil only allows loans to Brazilian universities. I'm also not allowed to work and my tuition per semester is around $10,000.
I am only two semesters away from graduating and would really sadden me to be forced to stop studying after coming so far and having done so many sacrificies in order for this to happen.
As an international business student, I have a strong drive to succeed and to not give up and would be extremely grateful if any of you could help me make this happen.
Thank you very much for reading until here,
And feel free to ask me any questions!
My name is Roberta Montag, I'm a 22 year old international student from Brazil at San Diego State University.
My intention with creating this Go Fund Me is to be able to afford the next two semesters at my university and finally be able to graduate, so I think it will be reasonable to start by telling my story.
I grew up in a middle class family in São Paulo, Brazil with a single mother and the help of my aunt. My dad passed away from cancer when I was 6 years old and since then my mom and my aunt did everything in their power to raise me in the best environment they could provide. We lived in São Paulo, the most expensive city of Brazil, with under than R$3000,00 reais ($1,000) per month - income we got from the rent of a parking lot my dad left me when he passed away - paying for private school plus all the living expenses.
Long story short, when I turned 18 years old and it was time to start applying for universities in Brazil, I had a realization that would change the entire course of my life: I wanted to study at a university in the U.S. Even though I certainly did not have the money to afford tuition or rent or anything basically, I insisted to know everything about the American educational system and waited for my high school graduation to finally get a low paying job and have money to at least send applications to universities and see if I'd get accepted into any.
After one year and a half of a long wait and a bureocratic process of visas, passports, and all the documents and tests required to be passed, I applied to 13 universities in total and got accepted into 8, one of them being San Diego State University. As happy as I could be, I still had a big problem to solve: how am I going to afford 4 years abroad paying out of state tuition?
The solution came after a few months when my mom and I decided to sell the parking lot that my dad left me as inherentance, which was also our only source of income. We sold it to a real state company to an amount that was going to be paid in monthly installments in the course of 4 years.
After two years receving the amount agreed, the company simply stopped paying the installments because they claimed that Brazil was facing a financial crisis and therefore their business was suffering. However, they garanteed that we should not be worried because they would pay on the following month. We heard the same story for the following months to come without getting paid at all, and finally decided to go to court.
It's been two years that the judicial process is ongoing and it's been two years since we have no source of income at all and no prediction to when this is finally going to be solved.
My mom still managed to support me abroad for the following year and a half to come, paying for all my tuition and living expenses. My aunt sold an appartment she had bought from her saving of almost 10 years just so I could finish school, and I did everything possible to drastically lower my expenses.
However, I still have two semesters left to complete and no one else to ask help from. Since I am an international student, I'm not allowed to take on loans in the U.S and Brazil only allows loans to Brazilian universities. I'm also not allowed to work and my tuition per semester is around $10,000.
I am only two semesters away from graduating and would really sadden me to be forced to stop studying after coming so far and having done so many sacrificies in order for this to happen.
As an international business student, I have a strong drive to succeed and to not give up and would be extremely grateful if any of you could help me make this happen.
Thank you very much for reading until here,
And feel free to ask me any questions!
Organizer
Roberta Montag
Organizer
San Diego, CA
