I Need Aid I Was A Katrina Victim

Aug 15,2009

Greetings,
this letter is a desperate attempt at finding aid for school. I don't know who will help if anyone so I am sending this letter to multiple places and peoples. I am a Hurricane Katrina evacuee and my name is James Darby IV. During the first week of my senior year of high school starting Aug 21,2006 at West Jefferson High School, I suspected change. Then the Monday a week after, change had come in the form of a category four hurricane Katrina, so I evacuated to Georgia. In addition, to all of the chaos and confusion, I missed a month of school and after my second month in Georgia, where I attended Centennial High, my uncle who lives in California, took me in.

I was then enrolled into school at William Howard Taft High School five weeks late into the semester and I struggled every step after. I was enrolled into classes that I did not take prerequisites nor had I any foundation for. As a result, I failed the first class that I had ever failed in my life. I fought tooth and nail just to graduate, going to tutoring almost as many times as it was offered. I received my diploma still wondering if I'd really just graduated and by then my grade point average dropped to a 3.0 from a 3.667. When I got to college, as a result of all the stress and unfortunate lack of preparation, my GPA plummeted to a 1.7. It was a math class that I had failed my Senior year and a similar math class with which I failed twice again in college. I didn't give up and I retook it in the summer and passed it above average. The only problem was that that class had a negative impact on my other grades and before I could get a chance to bring them up, my uncle, because of problems he was having, turned his rage against me and kicked me out of his home.

I found myself in Georgia again, the only worker in a house of five, working full-time, and having to ride a bike seven miles on rugged terrain to get to work. Many times I didn't have much to eat and was under constant verbal abuse. I couldn't enroll in a Georgia school because of what happened with my grades at California State University Northridge, the college I'd attended in California. I refused to give up and I became determined to get back to school, which Northridge was the only school I could get back into, so I fought to get back to Northridge.

After being out of college for a year, I finally returned. When I got back to CSUN I didn't have shoes for most of the entire first semester back, as well as other appropriate seasonal clothing. I busted my feet frequently wearing sandles, struggled to eat, and struggled to pay my dorm fee. I managed to get a 3.5 that semester, making the Dean's list, despite everything including not having all of my books. The next semester I got a 3.3 despite not having 4 out of 5 of the books that I required and having to work part time. Even if I wasn't under the amount of stress that I was and chose to, I still couldn't get the hours i needed at the right times to work full time. All of this hard work resulted in bringing my cumulative GPA back up to a 2.8.

While these things were undergone, I was also very miserable. I realized that I may have severe depression. I never went to seek help because I only wanted the people closest to me to know what really goes on in my life, simply put, they have earned the privilege to learn the minute details. What made the situation worse was that my room mate was a gang banger(a Crip) or at least he portrayed himself to be. As for my other two dorm mates, they either didn't like me or liked me to much. I don't mean liked me to much as in being to friendly. I almost fought my room mate twice. Because of this, most of the time I slept at some of my friends dorm to avoid trouble and conflict. I was miserable, depressed, and tired of the gangbangers, drugs, and the distracting anti-academic party permeated environment. One student was even murdered in the parking lot out side of the dorms in their own car. CSUN just did not feel like an academically nurturing or safe environment for me to lay the base-work for my future.

I questioned myself, what could I do to better my life? Then, in late March, an answer came to me from an old friend from New Orleans who told me about an Honors University in Maryland called, University of Maryland Baltimore County or UMBC for short. Earlier, I had planned to get to the east coast for internships hoping I could acquire Governmental work in D.C. when I graduated, so when she described this school to me, it sound perfect. I did research soon after and it turned out to be the only school in the area that I could find to have my double major. What a blessing I thought! I was desperate to leave California and had no real safe place to stay and I could only do what I needed to do to get into UMBC by being on or near it's campus. I gave it much thought and consideration and eventually decided to leave California for UMBC June 1st. The only problem was that, I didn't have adequate financial aid and in reality I was only leaping out on faith believing that I would acquire it. I managed to get into UMBC, getting all of my classes, and enrolled full-time with the help of my friend.

I am staying with my Anty and Uncle who are good people, but our deal was only for me to stay until school starts and I can not stay any longer than that. They are older and I can not let myself be a burden to them. That means I am looking at being homeless again if I cannot find a job and place. I've also searched for jobs all summer but my circumstances have made it extremely difficult, school being around 40 miles away from Rockville where I'm staying, and starting on September 1. I have managed to get some financial aid but since I will not have in state tuition until next school year, the cost of housing and tuition are really high, I'm short $6,021 for the year and my expected family contribution is $0. Even with this all the other aid that I have is mostly loans so I am going to be looking at almost $20,000-$30,000 worth of debt by the time I graduate if not more. I searched and searched and searched for aid, but I was either too late, I didn't have an adequate GPA , or my majors didn't qualify. It's also to late to go somewhere else. I just need some help and I've put forth such a strong effort! I really want to just complete my education without another year long break or having the threat of being homeless again or even bouncing around from state to state again. I have made 7 moves from state to state since Katrina! I only have two weeks until school starts and I have been searching since before I left California. I have even tried loans but needed a cosigner and everyone I talked could not do it either because of their credit or financial issues. I also only have a few days left before I need to start looking for a place to live. I need help desperately but I have faith that I will get it! Will someone aid me with my educational needs! Please contact me at kingjdiv@gmail.com or jd11@umbc.edu

sincerely,
James Darby IV