A Fundraising Update from Access Scholarships!

Hello! I can’t believe that it is almost the middle of March as I write this (time just feels like it has been flying by during COVID) but I do have a timely announcement and news to report!

If you keep regularly up to date with my posts on the gram, you might probably already know what I’m about to announce.

But, if you don’t, then, as I said, I have news!

Over the past few months, I have had the chance to speak with dozens, if not a few hundred, students who have expressed concern over not being able to pay for their higher education tuition.

Throughout these chats, I was also doing my own research to see if I could find any concrete numbers that echoed the claims of the students I was speaking to. I was both saddened and shocked to find out that this survey of over 10,000 students across US colleges and universities published last June by OneClass revealed that 56% of students can no longer afford their higher education tuition.

56% Of course I wish that this percentage would be 0, but as far as numbers go, 56% is far too high for my liking.

This led me to the conclusion that in addition to my free website, my own two scholarships that are currently running ($500 Self-Reflection Scholarship and the normal $1,000 no essay scholarship), and the resources I provide, as a player in the higher ed space, I need to go even further in supporting students on their quest to receiving a higher education.

To do this, I decided to do what any newly-born startup would do...to fundraise!

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Tell me more about this fundraiser...

For the entire month of March, I am asking businesses, family, friends, and the larger community to consider making contributions or sharing my fundraiser to help students fund their higher education.

Every penny of the money donated will go directly towards providing crucial financial support to less-privileged students, who have been working hard at trying to find alternate sources of income in addition to applying to scholarships (an endeavor which, as we all know, unfortunately does not guarantee success).

If you’re a student, and you’re currently reading this, you are probably wondering about some of the logistics of this fundraiser, such as

  • Who does the money go to? How can I get involved?
  • How does it get decided?
  • When will the winners be announced?

These are all extremely valid questions, which I am now going to answer!

To answer your questions...

I decided that I wanted to make it super easy for students to be able to sign up to be considered for. So, as a student, all you need to do is enter for my $1,000 Too Cool to Pay for School scholarship in order to be automatically considered.

As a reminder, the Too Cool scholarship is open to all high school, college, and graduate school students in the US, including permanent residents and students with DACA status. If you are an international student studying in the US, you are also eligible to apply, as long as you have a current home address in the US.

If you’ve read the details of my $1,000 scholarship, you already know that the quarterly winner is chosen by random drawing. While that is fine for our quarterly scholarship, my intention with this fundraiser is to ensure that the money we raise goes out to students who need it the most.

So, in order to decide the winners of the GoFundMe fundraiser money, we will be picking students by random generator. Once we have randomly picked a group of students, we will then reach out via email and ask for a copy of your FAFSA Student Aid Report, along with a written response of up to 250 words explaining your current circumstances and why winning the money from this fundraiser is important to you. In order to make the final decisions, we will be considering both your FAFSA EFC and your written response.

With that, I think that pretty much explains all of the details of my fundraiser for Higher Education.

We will be raising money until March 31st, which is the last day for students to enter for our scholarship. I am super excited to say that we recently broke $1,000, which is enough to give out two $500 scholarships! My ultimate goal is to raise $3,000, which would be enough provide some help to 6 students who need the support.

However, we still have quite a long way to go in order to reach our goal.

One final request

That’s why I would LOVE it if you would help me out, and share this link with your friends, family, larger community, and anyone who you think might be interested in helping out students in need.

Thanks so much, and be sure to keep an eye out on the Access Scholarships website and social media channels, where I will continue to document our fundraising progress, and eventually, announce the winners!

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