Alyssa shares a few updates on Dionna!

• Dionna finally found a great provider - of color! - in Baltimore who seems like she will really be an asset. She has an appointment with her provider this week.

• Dionna and I met with the head of the Office of Disability Services at Wellesley, advocating for her to return and to have everything taken care of that she needs (housing, class registration, dropping form documentation, etc). Dionna said that it was likely the head of ODS would not have turned on her camera or taken the meeting as seriously if I hadn’t been there, so I was really glad that I was. I was able to argue for good-sense solutions and to text Dionna in real time to tell her to continue pushing, when the chairperson was trying to dissuade her from getting the housing she wanted.

• Dionna was also able to squeeze in a surprise meeting with the Assistant Dean, where she advocated for herself skillfully.

• She’s already met with one mentor who’s helping her find scholarships in MA; we’re now doing outreach to find another mentor to help her look for scholarships in MD. If you have the bandwidth to help Dionna look for scholarships in Maryland, let us know! Email Rachel at rachel@yleana.org.

• I made a video for Dionna to share as part of her case file, advocating for her to return to college and explaining the best case scenarios for each issue she was having.

• We are meeting with the Director of Counseling Services this Friday at 10am.

This may seem like a ton, but this can be what it takes for JUST ONE student to stay in college and on the path to graduation.

Each student we support might need this level of help - and that’s why we say “to and THROUGH college” - because getting in is just the beginning. Our job is to support first-gen students, whose average family income is $33,159, and help them make it to the finish line - regardless of all the other factors or roadblocks that might arise. These challenges be financial, emotional, social, or academic:
- needing to sign up for food stamps while at college because they can’t meet your actual financial need
- needing to send money home to family members and working three jobs while in school to support the new babies at home
- trying to save money by not buying a meal plan
- worrying about a sick parent at home
- not being able to go home for a grandparent’s funeral because there’s no money

Each of these has happened to one of our kids and is just one of the myriad of confounding factors that makes it hard to stay in school. Thank you for being on our side!