Last Year University Tuition Help

Dear friends

Hello, my name is Nayeon Kim. I am a 5th-year architecture student at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

I have the last 2 semesters left till my long-awaited graduation but unfortunately, don't have enough funds to pay my tuition.

Thanks to a dedicated and selfless mom, me and my sister could both study abroad. When I was in high school and my sister was in middle school, my dad left us and he hasn't been supporting us financially. My mom tried to go back to her job as a medical lab scientist. But in Korea, after being a stay home mom for 11 years that is not easy. Luckily for a couple of years, she could work at a lab in a temporary position. But after that, she has been working 72~ 104 hours per week, for Korea's minimum wage (~7.7$), on very labor-intensive jobs to support both of us and my grandparents. Fortunately, we had my mom's savings and loans to afford the first years of my education. 

My sister also have been working part time along with her studies since high school. I also constantly worked part time. During the most demanding year, which was 3rd year, I worked at a campus package distribution center 18hrs a week until covid hit. And in 4th year, while taking zoom class from Korea, I worked at a restaurant for 20hrs a week, even after taking classes from 4am~ 2pm. Last year, we have completely exhausted our financial resources so my sister and I both took a break from school to save up for both of our tution. But saving $22k in Korea, which is 1 year tuition for international student was really hard. On top of that, due to the current economic crisis and US dollar exchange rate rising everyday, the situation got even worse.

As I know all my mom's hard work and dedication to my dream of becoming an architect, I tried my best to work and learn as much as I can. I am so grateful that I could be part of CPP architecture program. Thanks to all the dedicated professors and amazing group of people, I got to learn so much about architecture and how it can improve people's life quality. Needless to say, architecture school is an incredibly hard journey. There were many tough moments when my mom and I really questioned my choice of architecture. However, after all, staying up all night to finish my project was challenging but always a great joy. I have been very lucky to have a lot of people supporting me through those days and nights. I would've not made it this far without all the physical and emotional help from you all. Thanks to you, I have really enjoyed pursuing my dream as an architect, regardless of all the sacrifices. Seeing the end goal very close, I would want to humbly ask for a little help. With this support, I hope I would be able to finish my education without risking my mom overworking herself.

I would really appreciate any kind of help. And I will promise to always work hard in Architecture and use my skill to better people's life.