Sunday, January 13, 2013

Embarrassing Post / Request

This is, in candor, perhaps the hardest blog entry I have yet had to write. And the most potentially embarrassing one as well. But it needs done so....

First, while some of you might know that I had hoped to graduate here at UAF this Spring, it now looks as if that is very unlikely. I still have a few cards to play and a few ideas, but should those unlikely efforts fail, I will be here till at least December, 2013. The issue is, in the main, that I made a foolish presumption as to just how much algebra I actually recalled from my high school days some 36 years ago. Yes, I use some of the stuff in woodworking and the like. And no, it wasn't enough to score at an appropriate level for the placement test that UAF requires. So instead I have to take a 'pre-algebra' course first. At least, that is what I am enrolled in until I take the test again early next week (you can only take it twice in a single semester....or so I have been told). IF I score high enough and IF there is still a section of the math course I need to take for my core degree requirement then MAYBE I might also be able to 'massage' another issue – the two lab science courses I need both have a prerequisite of a specific math grade. The gamble/hope is that I might be able to convince the science professors to let me take their courses concurrently with the math course.

Not so likely. But as many of you know by now I can be a stubborn little.....well, you know the abbreviation.

So those are the circumstances as to why I may have to delay grad school till the Fall of 2014 rather than the Fall of 2013 as I had hoped. I'll not blame anyone but me for making presumptions and not getting started on these core courses sooner.....

Anyway, that is one set of embarrassment.

Here is the next....And I fear it will sound so.......emo. Even if I don't intend it to.

As those of you who have read this blog previously might recall I returned to school in 2010 after a 27 year lapse to pursue first my Bachelor of Arts degree (Theatre, with a design emphasis) and then, with luck, moving on to my Masters of Fine Arts degree (also in Theatre, with a design emphasis) and the possibility of teaching. I have been attending UAF thanks in the main to scholarships. For my first two years here, I was blessed to have received enough outside funding to pay for almost everything. Which left what I made with my student employment and one or two outside design and technical gigs to take care of food and other such essentials.

Sadly, due to a glitch at the end of last year (Spring 2012) I became ineligible for one of my scholarships. And this scholarship had amounted to roughly half of my total funding. At the start of the Fall semester I was uncertain what was going to happen but thankfully I was able to arrange for a 'one time only' injection of some additional outside funds. And I was also blessed to simultaneously receive a smaller, new scholarship out of the blue. When combined with my savings from my Summer theatre gig, the total just met my indebtedness. But a key point is that the larger fund source was a 'one time only' situation. So for the last semester I have been scrambling and submitting scholarship applications and essays and hunting for funding sources. And while I have attempted to save some funds from my student employment, I must admit that much of it ended up being spent for food and related essentials.

While I am waiting for the results of the various scholarships to be announced and while I continue to apply for others, it has come time for the Spring semester to begin. And for that payment to be made.

And, with my two remaining scholarships (a continuing one from last year and the newer, out of the blue smaller one) and my student job in the theatre department I am still $2300 short of meeting my tuition and fees. Not including books or other such. However, those items really become moot if I can't keep my enrollment. And, in candor, if I don't keep the momentum I currently have going towards first my BA and then my MFA I'm not certain I'll ever be able to return and finish them.

Which brings me here.

At the start of the Fall semester I began an effort to 'crowd-fund' some of my educational expenses. There are some online sites that are akin to Kickstarter, but rather than being for businesses they are for personal fund-raising. I spread the word of the page I had created (I mentioned it in one of my earlier, now deleted blog posts) but I hesitated to come out, full bore, and bare it all before Facebook and the world. Which is just as well. After some comparison, I determined that a different site was a better fit for my efforts. So I have made another site. And, attempting to at least stay somewhat within the Kickstarter model, it is with the following offer:

I'm seeking donations. Of any size. With my promise that, at some point within the next five years (my estimated time frame till my completion of my MFA, given my starting it in the Fall of 2014 and it being a three year program) I will pay them back. I cannot guarantee when or how soon, except that it would be within the above mentioned 5 years. Nor can I guarantee the precise order of repayment as it will depend on the cash available. Of course, if I am chosen for any of the scholarships I have applied for, some of the payback could be sooner than later. But the only certain things are the five year window. And my additional pledge to 'pay it forward' and help others in need when I might be able to do so. The rest is, sadly, all variables.

The basic deadline (excluding the unlikely event that I can convince the business office otherwise) is for me to pay my fees by close of business, Alaska Standard Time, Friday January 25th. About 13 days from now. Which is, realistically, why I am desperate enough to come here and ask for help. For a variety of reasons, that's a very difficult thing for me. But last Fall, a good friend reminded me that sometimes asking for help is not so bad....And so here we are.

Thank you to all who read this. And thank you, should you choose to help.

The link is below.... And, as that page might hit some who have not read this, or the blog, much of what I have said here is repeated there......

Again, thanks.