Thank you to all of the donors who contributed to this fund. We will be able to provide crisis support to students and staff who need our help.

Thank you Webster community for pulling together these last 24 hours to help achieve our goal of $30,000 raised to help students and staff affected by the pandemic.

Doug Finlayson, Head of the Directing program in the Conservatory of Theatre Arts, shared his reasons for donating when the crowd funding first began.

“As a faculty member in the Conservatory, I was keenly aware of how our students were emotionally and financially affected from the outset of the pandemic. In my hometown of Maplewood, community members immediately started a neighbor-to-neighbor support group called MapleGOOD. This homegrown approach to helping others was inspiring. As soon as Webster announced the Gorloks Now! Fund, I wanted to contribute to helping our students. Like neighbors helping one another, Webster values and supports its students. I encourage everyone to contribute to the Gorloks Now! Fund.”

In these last 12 hours we have just $1,545 left to reach our goal. Let's do this!

We are 75% of the way to our goal of helping students and staff. Please give now to put us over the top! Let's help students like Abigail Karst and her friends.

Abigail Karst is Webster senior and math major. Abigail had to return home suddenly in March from her semester abroad studying in Vienna.

“It was heartbreaking to be sent home early, and I know that I won’t get to go back again to finish my semester. It was disappointing to return home and have no job too. I was supposed to be a teacher assistant for a science and robotics program, but it was cancelled - which means I’m left with no summer income.”

“Fortunately, I am living with a family friend near campus my senior year and have scholarships to help me with my education. Many of my friends are worried about making ends meet and covering their school costs.”

Please donate now!

Like many of our students, Matt West relies on student loans, his on-campus work study job and the earnings from his summer job to pay for school. The COVID-19 shutdown meant everything he planned changed almost overnight. 

“I decided to risk flying home to Massachusetts because I couldn’t live on campus anymore. Back home, I hoped that I could work my two summer jobs while I finished out the semester online. It turned out I could work only one of my jobs and only for about 20 hours a week, some weeks even less.” 

“Online school was intense. Two days a week I had to leave work to take an online course and some nights I had to stay up to 1 a.m. to get my classwork done.”   

“I feel isolated because my friends are all back in St. Louis. This summer I can save only about half of what I need to pay for my school expenses, and due to the financial burden of the crisis my family finds it much harder to support me. The situation has been stressful.” 

Matt is determined to finish out his senior year at Webster University. His story is like that of so many Webster students. Please help us lighten some of the pressure for Matt and other students who are facing similar financial challenges. Please donate to the Gorloks Now! Fund today. The fund was created to help students who are facing financial hardships because of the COVID-19 crisis return to school.

Megan Schramm is a senior, with a major Biological Sciences, with Math minor. In her own words, Megan shares the challenges and disappointments she and many other students have faced over the last couple of months.

 

I'm blessed that COVID-19 hasn't infected the health of anyone near me or my family, but it definitely affected my life in many other ways. I wasn't able to compete in my spring senior season of track & field. I wasn't able to finish my senior research, and graduation has been far from what I expected.

 

Financial assistance would greatly help. I lost two of my on-campus jobs, and my summer job will also, likely, be cancelled. While my parents are able to help a little, I still have to pay rent, school bills and other necessities.