Help Us Keep Lindsey At UCLA!!
If you would like to make a direct donation, her venmo is @lindseytrieu!
Help us keep our roommate at UCLA! Our roommate Lindsey Trieu is currently at risk of being dismissed from UCLA due to her medical disqualification from ROTC causing her to lose her scholarship. This scholarship covered her tuition and allowed her to attend UCLA. For her first year at UCLA, besides being involved with ROTC, she has maintained good grades and stayed involved on campus. Lindsey has had to cut back on these extracurriculars and her overall time enrolled at UCLA due to forced financial independence by external factors. Instead, Lindsey is working two jobs and taking extra units to avoid taking out extra loans to graduate two years early. Lindsey's ambition and drive to reach her dreams is what has kept her strong through all her hardships, but her current financial factors are now preventing her from achieving her goals. With ROTC's revocation of her prior scholarship for the 2019-2020 school year, she is now left with a sum of $44k to pay off on extremely short notice. Currently, Lindsey has no external help. Please join us in helping Lindsey raise this money so she can stay at UCLA and get her degree.
Lindsey grew up in a sexually, physically, mentally, and verbally abusive family. Despite this, she studied hard and got accepted into UCLA. For her, this was her new leaf. A chance for her to escape from her harsh realities back at home. She applied for the ROTC program to help her cover the cost of college. She was accepted into the program and did well academically in her 1st year on a pre-med track. Unfortunately, her mental health began to decline due to the pressures of school, extracurricular activities, and familial issues. Lindsey's problems at home arose again when she realized that she no longer had a passion to pursue the pre-med route. She decided that it was in her best interest to change her major to psychology, which is something dear to her heart due to her personal mental struggles. When she told her parents about this, she was met with intense disapproval. They were unsupportive and threatened to cut her off financially and even disown her completely. Eventually, Lindsey built up the courage to write a letter to them detailing how their behavior and words have severely affected her life over the years. She forgave them, even when they did not apologize. Despite how she was treated, she loved and wanted them in her life. However, her mental health continued to rapidly decline.
Although externally she displayed a happy, carefree, optimistic life, she was struggling with simply being alive. On the night of June 21, 2020, she went to the roof of her apartment building where she was subleasing and was going to jump. Instead, she reached out as a last cry for help to the people who she thought would be there for her, her parents. On June 26, 2020, she flew home where she stayed for no longer than one week due to emotional arguments with her mother. The last fight ended in her being locked out of the house overnight and not allowed back in until the next morning when she was told to pack her belongings. Having no one to turn to, she stayed in a motel for the night before flying back to LA on July 3rd. She was homeless. This was when her mental health was at an all-time low. During this depressive episode, she came up with an intricate plan to take her own life. After this, Lindsey was admitted to a 72-hour psychiatric hospitalization and was hospitalized again one week later for attempt. When she was discharged, she couch-surfed for two months until she could find roommates and secure a lease. All the while, she continued to balance her summer classes and continued to apply for jobs to support herself. Lindsey finally found herself a job after 7 months of searching and an apartment to share with us. Just as things were beginning to go well for her, she opened up an email informing her that ROTC revoked her scholarship due to her medical disqualification from her mental health decline. Something she feared but anticipated prior to the disqualification, leaving her student bill to see an amount due of $44,021.97. More bad news followed when received emails from the registrar's office stating that she needed to pay the entire bill by September 25, 2020, or late charges would begin accruing and eventually, her classes would be dropped if not paid by October 2, 2020. Lindsey called the financial aid office for them to tell her that they cannot retroactively offer her scholarships and that she cannot apply for loans to cover the previous year's tuition and fees. When she turned to private loans, she was also declined due to having no credit history. She has also contacted the economic crisis response team. They have been able to add her to the "do not drop list" however, this is temporary and will only buy her an additional few weeks. With the new academic year to begin, she must pay off this debt or else her classes will be dropped and she will be dismissed from the university.
Lindsey's ambitions and drive is what allowed her to overcome her obstacles. Although the news of the bill devastated her, she still manages to keep a smile on her face. She is optimistic but she knows that she needs help to achieve her dreams and future goals. She cannot realistically pay off such a large sum of money in a short period of time. Therefore, we, as her roommates, have organized this GoFundMe in hopes that people all over can contribute to this young girl's life and give her the opportunity to escalate from her current situation.
