Danielle Jordi
Courtesy Danielle Jordi

I attended a Title 1 high school. I was told that only twenty percent of my graduating class would go on to pursue higher education and even fewer will obtain a degree or certificate. I was one of the lucky few who had managed to obtain a full scholarship to Northeast Alabama Community College. While I was working towards my associate degree in pre-chemical engineering, I was also working two jobs.

I transferred to UAH in the fall of 2017 on the Super Scholar Transfer Scholarship with a major in Chemical Engineering. Due to my volunteer work at one of the local high schools, I realized I was not meant to be an engineer. I was meant to teach a future engineer, mechanic, or nurse. I changed to a double major in mathematics and secondary mathematics in the fall of 2018. I was now projected to graduate fall of 2020; a year after my transfer scholarship would run out.

Now three years after I came to UAH, I am one semester away from graduation with my degrees. This fall I will be interning full time in one of the local schools. Unfortunately, this does not leave much time to work my two jobs and successfully complete the state degree requirements for my certification. Since I have paid for the last two semesters out of pocket, my savings is depleted, and I was worried about being able to afford tuition and living expenses for this final semester. However, due to the generosity of the Last Mile Fund donors, I will be able to cover the remaining cost of tuition not covered by FAFSA. I cannot adequately describe how grateful I am for your help in this final step towards graduation. Thank you.