Help Meghadeepa Thrive and Finish School!
Dear friends, family, community members, and people we don’t know,
Our names are Meghadeepa and Luca and we are raising money for Meghadeepa to finish school, have stability, and thrive. They have just one more semester to graduate but have been denied financial aid by their school.
We are raising $45,000 for them - $30,000 for tuition and related expenses, $9,000 for living costs through the end of the spring semester, $1,000 for immigration fees, and $5,000 for ongoing healthcare costs and paying off medical debt. Please support them here, on Venmo @meghadeepa or on PayPal @Meghadeepa or get in touch with us about writing a check!
We are asking you to join us as we dream worlds without borders, where everyone can access education, and easily meet their life needs.
From Meghadeepa:
I’m a first-generation and low-income international student, a survivor of childhood abuse, a queer woman of color, and disabled.
The community I grew up in could never have imagined that a girl straight out of high school — who had never been abroad or traveled alone, and who couldn’t even afford to pay any college application fees — would come this far. It’s been a rough journey, and now I’m only a semester away from graduating from Mount Holyoke College.
The limited support I’ve received for navigating school with my disabilities has forced me to take several breaks from school.
I was hoping to return to school last year, but three things threw a wrench in my plans:
- I experienced a sustained period of physical and psychological violence last spring, following which I lost my home just as the pandemic was beginning. I was in an extreme state of shock and fear, and my PTSD returned in earnest.
- I sustained a severe head injury last fall: 5+ months later I’m still in active rehabilitation for the concussion, relearning how to be a functional adult.
- My school terminated my financial aid package, which typically covers 95% of my tuition, health insurance, room and board.
I dream as big as I can; I always have. Among other things, I want to continue my research as a computational physicist and cosmologist, I want to be a pioneering educator in the Maker movement, and I want to make the world a safer and kinder place.
All my hopes and dreams seem to have been stifled by borders and political agendas. But I still have birds to see, languages to learn, music to play, recipes to concoct, and sunsets to chase.
Being stuck in a state of perpetual anxiety about where my next rent check is coming from — or how long I have until I am forced to return to the violence I escaped 8 years ago— has left me so, so broken. Navigating this country as an immigrant has been extremely challenging, and my trauma never seems to stop haunting me; I’m exhausted from trying to jump over hurdles at every step. It’s taken a lot of going without to finally feel compelled to ask for help in this way. Thank you for the ways you choose to show up for me.
From Luca:
Meghadeepa is an avid birder, a devoted advocate for accessibility in birding spaces, an amazing cook, and a great friend. I am so glad to know them, and I have learned so much from how they constantly show up for their community and organize to increase safety and access to the outdoors for BIPOC, disabled folks, the LGBTQ+ community, and survivors.
Being a financially independent non-citizen in the U.S. is very hard. Meghadeepa has struggled to make ends meet without the ability to legally work in this country. Colleges do not do enough to support international students or any students with disabilities who don’t have family support. International students are not eligible for federal grants and loans, and government benefits like disability or food stamps, and are left having no choice but to rely on family, no matter how unsafe that might be.
When we talk about our dreams, it makes me so mad that Meghadeepa has had to defer their passions and talents because of inhumane borders and institutions. I want them to have all they need to do their important work in the world, whether that is finishing school, transforming birding communities, contributing to academia, or working to find healing for themself and others.
Now is the time for her community to show up for them!!
Please share our fundraiser with your family, friends, and on social media.
Please note that GoFundMe payments deduct a 3% transaction fee. You can also support them on Venmo @meghadeepa and PayPal @Meghadeepa, or write a check.
Give as much as you can so Meghadeepa can thrive; every donation and every share helps!
