My name is Jaieri Barber, and I recently graduated from Lindbergh High School in Renton, Washington. I'm fundraising to cover my tuition fees to continue my education and achieve my academic goals. I am very excited to start my college journey at Bowie State University this fall in Maryland and planning to study Business: Finance

At the age of 11 months, I was placed in the care of my grandmother, Sheila Barber, by a social worker named Gabe Escada. I was never put in the foster care system, nor did my grandmother ever obtain legal guardianship over me. My grandmother possesses only a handwritten note signed by my mother in December 2006, authorizing her to attend to all my medical needs. This note enabled my grandmother to enroll me in school.

As my grandmother lives on disability benefits, our financial situation is extremely tight. In 2018, while I was in the 8th grade, we lost our home because we could not afford it, and since then, we have been staying on and off with different family members. For the last two years, I have been financially independent, working a part-time job while maintaining a GPA of 3.2.