My Personal Struggles with Financial Need as a Student

I am honored to say that I will become the first in my family to graduate from a Four-Year University, at the beginning of my educational path everything I have experienced till now seemed impossible, but If someone is truly determined and committed to their dreams nothing is impossible. Yes, I have made many sacrifices in my life to be able to pay off my college tuition and can live near campus, but I have no regrets.

Four almost 5 years now I have been working over 40 hours a week, my job at MV transportation has provided me a flexible schedule throughout my college education where I’ve worked 10 hour shifts from 3am to 1pm, 4 days a week. This schedule has been exhausting as a full-time college student, but it has fit in very well with my college course schedule. I knew from the beginning of my educational path, that I would have to make many sacrifices in order to get where I am now.

I am now approaching my last semester of college, where my tuition with books and other fees will be around $4,000. I also must pay my on-campus living expenses which range around $5,000 a semester. With graduation coming up, and having those extra graduation expenses, I see myself in need of financial assistance. I do not qualify for any financial benefits from FAFSA, the organization from my school only provides me with Loans that I could choose from, but I have never taken any loan out because I want to continue being debt free when I graduate college. Being debt free from college loans has been difficult because in order to have kept it this way I’ve had to put myself in situations where my job has sometimes interfered with my grades.

Luckily, I have been able to manage through that stage with wonderful mentors who have advised me well and encouraged me to stay focused in my career path. There is one grant that I receive from my University it is the Transfer grant they offer to all students who transfer from a community college, that grant is $689.00 a semester. I’ve been receiving this grant since fall of 2017 that I transferred to the University of Texas at Arlington from Eastfield Community College. This grant has been quite a help covering small expenses like my books, and other small fees.

I do not rely a lot on my parent financially, because they are struggling financially as it is. My dad is a machine operator for Heritage Asphalt Construction, his income is what most of my family depends on. As my mom had to stop working about 2 years ago, to go to Mexico to take care of my grandma who was severely ill, that’s when I saw my dad struggling even more since he had to be sending money to my mom in Mexico. I did not want to put my parents through that burden of tuition costs and debt, I chose to put myself through that responsibility to cover all my college expenses. It’s been a tough ride, but I am proud to have made it this far without financially impacting my family. If selected for this scholarship, I will continue persisting to apply the same diligence to my collegiate courses as I have to this point, making education and service to others as my top priority.