As the nation continues to face the novel coronavirus, we continue to see people—especially women, and especially women of color—leave the workforce. Parents who are working are still struggling to balance child care, work, and virtual schooling, while other families face daily anxieties about whether or not it’s truly safe to send kids back to in-person school. We’ve seen viral photos of cars lined up for assistance at food banks and advocates rallying on behalf of people facing eviction. Losing a home is always a terrifying prospect, but it’s especially so considering what we know about how the coronavirus spreads among homeless communities, which are uniquely vulnerable. This only adds to the fear of losing one’s home.
In all of this, young people are figuring out how to get to their dream colleges. Take, for example, Texas teenager Alondra Carmona. Carmona, as reported by local outlet ABC 7, has been set on attending Barnard College since she was just 15. But, according to Carmona, since her mother broke her ankle and lost her job several months ago, the family has fallen behind on rent and is facing eviction. So what is Carmona doing? According to her GoFundMe, she’s using all of her college savings to help her family stay housed. And while deeply admirable, that’s far from a feel-good story.
On a GoFundMe page Carmona created, she states that her mother broke her ankle in February 2020, leading her to be unable to work. From there, COVID-19 swept the United States, which according to Carmona, “added to the financial problems we already had.” According to Carmona, at the time of writing the fundraiser, her mother owed two months of rent and was facing eviction in March. Thus, the fundraiser was born.
Carmona, who says she was raised in a single-parent household, describes her love for science and medicine, and how she worked all through high school to supplement her education with extra programs and extracurriculars to learn more in order to pursue her dream. On her fundraising page, Carmona states that Barnard “will not be able to change” her financial aid package, hence her fundraising effort.
As reported by Good Morning America, Carmona hopes to be a neurosurgeon and will major in neuroscience and minor in Latin American studies. Carmona told the outlet Barnard offered her a $60,000 financial aid package, and she’s trying to meet the remaining cost of room and board. Some of the GoFundMe money will also go to supporting her mom, according to the teen.
At the time of writing this article, her GoFundMe has raised more than $115,000, over the original $75,000 goal. That’s excellent, but it’s a reminder that the cost of college in the United States is truly exorbitant. Barnard is a private school, so costs are obviously going to be higher. But in the big picture, we have to question what we’re asking of young people when they’re encouraged to attend college and take on debt. Especially when those young people are girls and women of color pursuing fields they’re underrepresented in.
Daily Kos has covered similar stories in the past. For example, the South Carolina principal who worked a second job at Walmart to provide for low-income students. Or the incarcerated folks in California who pooled their wages to donate to a scholarship for students in need. Or the Virginia pastors who used $17,000 of their budget to pay off school lunch debt. What do all of these stories have in common? People with big hearts doing great things. They deserve praise and thanks, without a doubt. But we all deserve to have systemic, structural change that doesn’t rely on the kindness of strangers.
You can check out a brief interview with Carmona below, courtesy of YouTube.