Education

A Lowell teen started a crowdfunding campaign to pay for college

Emily Stutz created a gofundme.com campaign to help pay for college. Mary Schwalm for The Boston Globe

May 16, 2016

1 minute to read

Emily Stutz, a soon-to-be Lowell High School graduate, always wanted to go to college to become a psychiatrist, but her dream was threatened when her financial aid packages began rolling in with disappointing aid.

Stutz, 18, whose parents were in financial distress and and who only had $1,000 saved from her own babysitting and other odd jobs, decided she’d do whatever it took to get herself to college—including panhandling and making a public appeal for donations on the crowdfunding website GoFundMe.com.

And it worked.

In less than a month, Stutz raised $24,441, with 480 donators, according to her fundraising page.

“This is something I will never forget and the fact that I have almost 2 years of college now paid for is something I will be eternally grateful for,” she wrote.

Stutz decided she will continue to live at home and commute to the University of Massachusetts Lowell, according to The Boston Globe. She pledged to offer a scholarship for the total amount of money she receives when she becomes financially stable, she wrote in an update on her campaign.

“Giving that scholarship will mean so much to me and I can’t wait for the day I am able to hand it to a student who’s just like me,” she wrote.

“In standing out there, my main motive was to promote the awareness of the skyrocketing costs of college and the huge financial burden placed on students and families,” Stutz added. “It is such a huge issue and I want to draw attention to the fact that there are SO many people in my situation and I am not alone.”