Sargent
Sargent Spirit
Issue 4
Sargent emergency fund changes lives In her junior year, Sarah Wade (Sargent’21, SPH’23), a health science major, was carrying a full academic course load and holding down two jobs to make ends meet when the rug was pulled out from under her. Her dad, who had been cosigning lowinterest loans for her tuition and expenses, cut her off when she told him she was gay. “I had a girlfriend and didn’t want to keep it a secret anymore,” she says. “I was left paying for school, electronics, food, clothes—everything—on my own.” Sarah’s schedule was already intense: classes, the BU Women’s Rowing team, an internship at Children’s Hospital doing surveillance to identify COVID-19 case clusters for the Centers for Disease Control, and seasonal work for BU Athletics. “I started working seven days a week—dog walking, babysitting, Instacart grocery delivery—on top of everything else,” says Sarah. BU financial aid increased the amount of her grants significantly, but it still wasn’t enough. So a week before spring semester began, she set up a GoFundMe account. “It was a last resort,” she says. “I’m someone who likes to figure things out myself. When I ask for help, it’s me saying, ‘OK, I really can’t do this alone anymore. This is the last straw.’” Sarah Wade (Sargent'21, SPH'23)
I can’t thank the Sargent Cares donors enough for what their support has helped me achieve.”
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Sargent Cares: a safety net The GoFundMe account enabled Sarah to get through junior year. But when the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated that spring, those extra jobs dried up. “That summer, my sense of control evaporated,” she says. The Sargent Cares Emergency Fund helped restore it. Dean Chris Moore established the fund in response to the financial crises many students and families were facing because of job loss, mounting healthcare expenses, unplanned travel needs, and other emergencies brought on by COVID-19. Sargent College leadership donors responded immediately and generously (see “Sargent Cares, then, now, and always” on page 5). To date the fund has supported 37 students, including undergraduate, graduate, and international students. Those in the latter two groups are not eligible for support under the federal CARES Act, making the fund particularly critical for them. Sarah first heard about Sargent Cares in the fall of her senior year when one of her professors, Kelly Pesanelli, mentioned it in her Organization and Delivery of Healthcare course. “I was like, this really, really could help me out,” she says. It has. “Sargent Cares provided an incredible cushion for me,” says Sarah. “Yes, it enabled me to buy what I needed, like a new computer camera so I could participate in my remote classes, and to pay my phone bill. But it did so much more. It reassured me emotionally: I could make it, I could graduate. It allowed me to take a breath, to be a student—to do my homework without stress, to FaceTime with friends. And it let me work on my relationship with my family.”