Mya Thompson is a senior at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Late last month, the 25-year-old was on track to graduate in May, but she still owed the school $2,500 in tuition and fees – not a huge sum, but she likely wouldn’t get her diploma unless she could come up with the money.
“I get grants, I get loans. I get a need-based scholarship from Howard … But my financial aid usually doesn’t cover everything,” says Thompson, who also works at D.C.’s 911 call center and is raising her young son. “I just had to figure out how I was going to handle my everyday bills and set aside $2,500.”
Then two weeks ago, she got an email from the office of financial aid at Howard, a historically black university, promising an amazing opportunity if she would just come in and learn about it. She expected to sit through a seminar about something else she would need to apply to.
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