Hello, my name is Maisy Gardner; I am currently a second semester junior at McDaniel, with plans of graduating Spring 2022. I’m a psychology major with hopes of continuing on to graduate school. I transferred to McDaniel during my sophomore year of college, and was a commuter up until this semester. Because I was only ever on campus for classes my first few semesters at McDaniel, I never really made any friends; and Spring 2020 I decided to take a leap of faith and go through formal recruitment, where I got a bid from Phi Alpha Mu. Since joining, my personal life has changed a lot, and Phi Alph has continuously been a stable and loving home for me. I’m so thankful for the many great friends that Phi Alph has given me, and all of the consistent support they have showed me as I’ve had one of the hardest years of my life thus far. 

Shortly after we were sent home due to the coronavirus, my parents made the decision to separate. Initially I thought this would be a positive change in my life, as my parents have fought most of my life, and shown me the worst things that a marriage could potentially offer. I quickly found out that it would rather bring the opposite. My mother was the one who stayed in the house, due to her not having a job because of breaking her back many years ago; and she quickly became very abusive towards me. Because of the pandemic, I didn’t have very many options of where to go to escape my home life, and many nights I just endured this new life. I was forced to get another job to financially support myself, and spent most of my time now working 3 jobs. There were many days when I got little to no sleep and had far more interactions with the police than I would care to have. Life got so bad that I eventually got a protective order against my mother, which was quickly broken. I was left with no other option than to move in with my father, who now lives an hour away, and commute to my 3 minimum wage jobs. I am so grateful that McDaniel allowed us to move back onto campus, as it provided me a safe haven from my family life, but I now find myself in an even worse financial situation than before. My loans, scholarships and grants didn’t cover all of my tuition now that I live on campus, and I now find myself needing to come up with almost $4,000 in less than a month. I am unable to ask or receive any financial aid from my parents, as I primarily don’t talk to either of them unless absolutely necessary, and I’m not in a financial position to take out any private loans. I hate having to ask for any help from anyone, but if I can’t come up with the money I’ll be forced to go on administrative withdrawal and be removed from campus housing, forcing me back into my toxic home life. 

I’d like to thank you all in advance for taking time out of your day to even read this far, and I’m more than grateful for help of any kind!