Let me elaborate. Even before I applied to Semester at Sea I knew that I would definitely apply for the "Diversity Abroad" video essay scholarship. It's the only way that I would ever be able to afford this trip. The scholarship basically asks students to make a video and describe how a deep understanding of diversity makes us all more effective global citizens (check out my video essay below).
I'm proud and happy to say that I applied and I won one of the 5 scholarships paying 60% of my costs for the voyage.
I remember it was a long miserable day and I was driving home from night school when I found out the good news. I screamed and yelled and cried tears of joy while the cars beside I'm sure took me for a crazy person. It was one of the most exciting and happiest moments in this process and in my life.
That moment was tainted about a month later when my home school found out about the scholarship. They readjusted my financial aid and in turn I had federal money and state money taken away because of the scholarship. The disturbing part is that I did not have enough money to cover all my costs and money was taken away. To add insult to injury later on I was informed that I would not be receiving other financial aid that my home school had advised that I would DEFINITELY be receiving. I LOVE my home school and they have been amazing in every way, but they really screwed the pooch on this one!
Long story short I was 4 1/2 weeks away from the trip and finding out I was now $6000 short of what I originally thought I had. I panicked. I remember my stomach being in knots and my heart in my throat. All the hard work and sacrifice of working 2-3 jobs for the last 6 months down the drain. At this point I had already paid for visas, received vaccinations, and started packing. luckily I had copied SAS on all of my correspondences with my home school's Financial Aid Department and also had copies of documents where they listed incorrect information. Semester at Sea was gracious enough to help me out a bit and I'm grateful to them for it. If it wasn't for their generosity I would have had to cancel the trip. Although they weren't able to give me the $6000 they gave me enough to go.
I've had to completely rearrange plans and will be "Ballin' on a budget" but I'm looking forward to a change of pace and living a minimalist lifestyle. Everything happens for a reason and because of this I have been propelled to do more service trips while in port which will be more rewarding than anything I could ever pay for with money.
I write this not for sympathy but because I want future SASers to be aware and stay on top of their paper work. If your school has a consortium agreement please be sure to ask (and GET IT IN WRITING) what they are agreeing will transfer over as far as credits and financial aid award goes. If I hadn't been stalking my accounts like a crazy ex-boyfriend I may have noticed these things going on when it was too late. So make sure to keep everything in check and don't let anyone or any circumstances stop you from achieving your dreams.
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