One of the young college students working with us on the weekend is a lovely young woman from Utah who is on a full scholarship to Pratt. She's very quiet and sweet, and doesn't talk too much. It turns out that Stacy is preoccupied because she can't finish her final semester because she needs to pay $6,000 before she can register. Last year she worked a full time job to pay these incidental costs.
Cut to one month later where Stacy has raised the $6000 dollars thanks to a campaign on ______and lots of friends and family supporting her. She also got a $2000 dollar scholarship after my friend appealed to the President of Pratt.
She paid off her balance over a week ago, has been meeting with her professor on her thesis project in sculpture, but Pratt still hasn't let her register.
She's gone to the registars office every day, and she's basically ignored. She's already lost one semester. She had to move out of the dorm when she couldn't pay. Now what she is trying to save is one more semester at Pratt. She doesn't want to lose a whole year. If she can finish her class on sculpture and her thesis project, she won't have to repeat another year and $50,000 in expenses.
If an institution like Pratt is going to give working class kids full scholarships, these are kids without parents who know how to negotiate and maneuver schools, etc, kids without trust funds, then they should provide the kind of money smart education in this area so they don't get lost and burnt out in the shuffle.
It's hard enough to go away to college, to go away to a big city and an expensive Preppy school. Add on the stress of money, trying to fit in and triumph, and the stress is unbelievable.
She's already had to move out of the dorm and has lost one semester. You'd think they'd be on top of these kids with someone helping to guide them, but Linda's been all alone struggling with this situation.
I told her to say:" I need help" and that she does.
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