I am a junior at Queens College majoring in both Art Education and Illustration. I chose Queens College because it is one of the only public schools with both these majors. I\u2019ve been drawing since I was a child, so I wanted to take the opportunity to get a degree specific to my interests. I also love to help people learn, so art education felt like the perfect match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The financial aid I get doesn\u2019t cover the full cost of attendance, and these extra costs cut into the incredibly tight budget my family has to survive. It demolishes my family\u2019s ability to afford our basic needs. In New York, we all pay too much in rent and bills, and for my family, any extra cost of any kind makes it so that we can\u2019t afford groceries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My mother is a single parent supporting two children through college. Her health is deteriorating, and work is getting harder for her. Also, financial aid takes forever to process. When it doesn\u2019t get processed on time, my account goes on hold, and I can\u2019t register for my classes for the next semester. Right now, with the threat of $9,000 coming out of my family\u2019s empty pockets, the future of my education is at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I live in the dorms on campus because my family lives almost two hours away. I made the decision not to live at home because I wanted to ensure that nothing got in the way of my education, including traffic. But I feel like every time I make the right decision for my education, it seems like everything else has to take a hit\u2014especially my finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If school were free or if I got more aid, I wouldn\u2019t have to worry about these things, and I wouldn\u2019t have to put my family into unimaginable debt just hoping things work out in the future. I shouldn\u2019t have to tank my family\u2019s livelihood just for a chance at success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am a junior at Queens College majoring in both Art Education and Illustration. I chose Queens College because it is one of the only public schools with both these majors. I\u2019ve been drawing since I was a child, so I wanted to take the opportunity to get a degree specific to my interests. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[216,81,21],"tags":[16,27,49,217,126],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assembly-district-78","category-senate-district-33","category-queens-college","tag-financial-aid","tag-food-costs","tag-rent","tag-room-and-board","tag-tuition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":963,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions\/963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirgstudents.org\/storybank\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}