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Recovering Addict Single Dad Accepted to Stanford

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Five years ago was not that far away, but it may as well have been another life. Seriously injured from a brutal assault, recovering from methamphetamine addiction, and  fighting an uphill battle against a biased family law system left me with little hope, but there was too much at stake to quit.  I begged God for two things: Please let me be a father to my daughter and please give me a new life. Well, God  heard those prayers and he gave me more than I ever could have imagined. On October 9th, 2014 the courts granted me sole custody of my then 11 month old daughter and she left the court that day safe in my arms. Inspired by this blessing I began to work as hard as I could to give her a better life. A little more than a year later I earned my GED and decided to enroll at community college.  As a first-generation college student I was filled with doubt and fear, but I faced them. I  quickly sought out support at my school and began to excel. My first semester was hard, but I earned straight As and continued this trend again and again. The next year in 2017, I won  my first writing award and was a recipient of two foundation scholarships! I was filled with pride, but so was my daughter. One day she looked up at my awards on the wall and said, "Daddy, I'm going to get awards in school too." That was every bit of the validation I needed to keep pressing  on. The next year the trend continued. Straight As and more  scholarships. The pressure was building,  but I just kept working and staying grateful. Near the end of 2018 I applied to 11 universities and one very prestigious national scholarship called the Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. Most of these applications were longshots for someone like me, but I had to at least try because that's what we tell our children to do. Well wouldn't you know it I got into eight of those schools and they included UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, UCLA, Claremont Mckenna College, Pitzer College, UC Berkeley, and Stanford University. 
I also found out that out of 1500 applicants, I was chosen as one of sixty-one 2019 Jack Kent Cooke Transfer Scholars. I couldn't believe it and I'm still in shock. This last May I graduated from that community college with five associate degrees and a 4.0 gpa. I was chosen as a student of distinction and as one of two distinguished students of the year. Throughout all these awards and diplomas my daughter was there watching me. She is growing up in an academic household and this fall will begin Kindergarten while  living on  campus at Stanford University.

So you might ask, "with all this  good fortune why are you starting this fundraiser??" Well...Stanford and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation are generously covering my tuition and most of our living expenses, but the costs of moving and the first months rent and deposit is up to us. Moving is very expensive and our initial move in costs  to secure our new place in the California Bay Area are more than we can afford. Even with our entire savings we are gong to come up short on our rent and first month expenses. So this is where I could use some help.

Can you help a 39 year-old recovering addict single dad move to Stanford?? If you can't can you share this with a few people?

Organizer

Corey Lamb
Organizer
Fullerton, CA

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