Thank you again for your past support of the Social Work Student Assistance Scholarship. In the past year, we were able to help four students who were close to completing their social work degrees but having significant financial challenges. We are in another campaign for this fund that we end on December 4, 2019. We are at 33% of our goal.

Please consider giving again to help us reach another goal. 100% of the money that is given to this fund goes to help social work students in their final year who are struggling financially. The University of Memphis does not charge us any fees for using this platform for fundraising.

You can give again today at this link.

Dear Donors,

I am pleased to tell you about two more students that we were able to help this semester thanks to the Social Work Student Assistance Scholarship.

C.W. just graduated last weekend with her BA in social work. During spring semester, her car broke down costing her roughly $600. She was taking on additional work hours at her part-time job to cover this new expense. With the additional work hours, she was struggling to finish her field hours and finish all of her coursework. She was considering dropping her minor in Spanish because of her financial stress and her difficulty juggling all her responsibilities. The Social Work Student Assistance Scholarship was able to cover her additional $600 expense. This resulted in her finishing field on time and completing the Spanish minor.

A.J. is an MSW student who is nearly finished with her degree. She will graduate in Fall 2019. She quit her job to focus on her education. Through a series of events, she has ended up homeless and staying with relatives. She has run out of financial aid and needs a course in summer to stay on track for graduation. With no other options to pay for the one course, the Social Work Student Assistance Scholarship was able to step in and help her.

Thank you again for your donation! Your donation helps students like C.W. and A.J. graduate. You can donate again anytime at: https://securelb.imodules.com/s/1728/interior.aspx?sid=1728&gid=2&pgid=1770&cid=3059

Sincerely,

Susan Neely-Barnes

Donors,

I am pleased to tell you that we have awarded another student the Social Work Student Assistance Scholarship. One of our Lambuth campus students in Jackson, TN was ineligible to graduate because she need just a few more credit hours. She was eligible to register for those hours but was out of financial aid. Thanks to your generous donation, we were able to help her graduate. Her thank you note is below:

I am sincerely honored to have been selected as the recipient of the School of Social Work Scholarship. Thank you for your generosity, which has allowed me to finish my last semester at the University of Memphis, located in Jackson, TN. I will be graduating on Saturday,  May 4, 2019. As I complete my education at the University of Memphis, I am very thankful for receiving your thoughtful gift. Because of your scholarship, I will be able to finish my hours to receive my Bachelor of Social Work. 

Also, please remember that we are having a fundraiser for the Scholarship on Thursday, February 28th at the home of Jonathan Cole. The Facebook invitation may be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/287978128575047/  I hope you can join us for this event.

Sincerely,

Susan Neely-Barnes, PhD, MSW

Donors, 

I am pleased to tell you that we have used your generous donation to help another student graduate. KC is nine hours from finishing his degree, and he has exhausted all eligibility for other forms of financial aid. Here's an except from his thank you letter: 

I can assure you I am very appreciative of this scholarship as it will allow me to bring a promise I made to myself and my now deceased mom, into reality. This has without a doubt enriched my experience and dreams of being an Alumnus of the University of Memphis.

I appreciate your confidence in me and your willingness to contribute to my future education. I am in the home stretch and your scholarship has relieved a huge financial burden and allowed me to focus primarily on academics. I am eager to continue my work in our community and will be an advocate and support system for our youth. I am now equipped with tools and gained knowledge necessary to continue to the cycle and pay it forward as you did for me.

Thank you again for donating and making it possible for students like KC to graduate. We are in a fundraising campaign now for the Social Work Student Assistance Scholarship and we have thus far achieved 51% of our new goal. Please consider donating again at https://momentum.memphis.edu/sw_scholarship 

Best wishes,

Susan Neely-Barnes

Donors,

This week, I was able to help Destiny who is one credit hour shy of graduation with her undergraduate social work degree. She is out of financial aid. Thanks to this scholarship, she will complete her one credit hour this summer as an independent study with Dr. Delavega and graduate in August. Destiny has a job offer at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program when she finishes. She wrote a very long letter about the series of challenges in her life and her family life that have delayed her graduation. 

Here is an excerpt from the letter:

"Thank you just does not really say what this donation means to me. I thought long and hard about how I could express how thankful I am to those of you who were able to donate to help me complete my final credit hour. After writing a standard thank you note that just did not seem to fully express my feelings I decided the only way that you will truly understand is if I explain a few of the hardships I faced on my journey to get my diploma, so you can fully appreciate the true meaning of your donation in my life."

Destiny further explained that she is facing a number of challenges including medical issues with no health insurance, the recent loss of her brother, and the struggle of working two jobs while trying to complete school full time. She ended her letter with the following: 

"If you had not donated and the department had not agreed to let me do a single hour independent study I am not sure I would have been able to finish for quite a long time. My mother would have been devastated that she could not help but they are in debt too so the thought of even telling her about the situation got me emotional."

Once again, thank you for your donation to the Social Work Student Assistance Scholarship. We are very grateful to have funds to help students like Destiny.

Best wishes,

Susan Neely-Barnes, PhD, MSW

Chair & Professor

Social Work Student Assistance Fund donors:

Thank you again for your donation. We were recently able to help an undergraduate student who was facing eviction and repossession of her car. If she had taken on a second job to address her financial difficulties, she would have been forced to drop classes. She is in her final semester. So, dropping classes would have delayed her graduation. We are pleased that this scholarship fund was available to assist her and help her progress towards graduation. A note from the student may be found below:

To the Social Work Student Assistance Scholarship Program,

Thank you very much for your generous donation. I am very grateful to be part of a school and a program that not only cares about their student's success, but also their well-being. My son and I are forever thankful. Out deepest thanks to you and all the donors that made this gift possible. May you all be blessed for your act of kindness. With this donation, my son and I are one step closer to securing our own apartment. Again, thank you all.

Best wishes!

Donors:

Just wanted to take a second to thank all of you for supporting the Social Work Student Assistance Fund. With all of us working together, we met our goal raising a total of $4026. This will be added to the approximately $1100 that we had in the account prior to the campaign. 

Your donations will make a meaningful impact for students struggling to complete their degree. I look forward to providing you with updates as we are able to help students in our programs.

Thank you for all you do for students in the Department of Social Work!

Susan Neely-Barnes

Thank you for your support. Our project has had twenty-seven donors. We have also won both the social media challenge and the raffle. Once the money from the raffle is transferred, we will be at 86% of our goal. In other words, we need just $559 to achieve our fundraising goal. Please spread the word and help us get those final donations. Please encourage others to give today.

Did you know that social work students at the University of Memphis contribute over 80,000 hours of service to Memphis and the greater Mid-South through field internship placements? Most of these hours are unpaid. Your support of the Social Work Student Assistance Scholarship supports both students and the community,

We are at 40% of our funding goal! Please share about your gift on social media and encourage others to donate to the Social Work Student Assistance Scholarship.