Support the Student Emergency Fund

Help us to support our students through the College of Education Student Emergency Fund.

Thanks to the match from generous donors Janet Bailey '67, '77 EdD; Charlie Desmond '92 EdD; Janet and William Gorth; and Mary Beth Pelosky '89, '92 MEd; we are now over our $10,000 goal! 

Founded in 2018, the College of Education Student Emergency Fund has dispersed more than $30,000 to help students during emergency situations and with unanticipated or compelling circumstances that may jeopardize a student's ability to successfully continue their education. Students request funds to help with:

• Food and housing
• Medical needs
• Childcare
• Emergency travel
• Caring for a disabled or sick family member
• Technology needed for remote learning

During the 2019-2020 school year, there was a 41% increase in applications to the Fund with the majority of applications related to Covid-19. During this academic year, we anticipate that demand will continue to increase.

Jamie Garner, Ph.D. candidate in Teacher Education and School Improvement, describes how the emergency funds have helped her:

"We took in two pre-adoptive foster care children in late December of 2019, so our kids were with us roughly three months before everything shut down. We were struggling with all of the costs of getting them settled into our home, as well as the expenses that come from me being disabled. I knew that there was a student emergency fund from the fliers around the education building, but I kept telling myself that we weren’t struggling that much and that others needed that money more than we did.

Luckily, the department kept sending us emails saying that funds were available for a wide variety of needs. I finally told myself that they wouldn’t keep sending the emails if they weren’t really trying to help people so I went ahead and applied for some funds to help with groceries and accessibility devices.

The support and relief that we felt was instantaneous, and I was able to focus more of my energy on trying to transition to the remote learning and working format as a student, instructor, and parent.

Being disabled is expensive. Being a parent is expensive. And being a student is expensive. Society benefits from the intersection of diverse people and ideas, and the only way to ensure we have a variety of voices on our campus is to provide support to those who need it most. Nobody should be excluded from getting an education. I am so grateful that programs like the College of Education Student Emergency Fund can help those who are struggling financially to reach their goals.

Thank you for supporting our students!