Last week, Bess and Cat took one of our youth, Faith, to meet with MOHELA (Missouri Higher Education Loans Association) to discuss how she may go about furthering her education. Faith talked about some barriers that have hindered her from dedicating as much time as she should be to her studies; her car payment itself was causing her to work multiple jobs, which takes away time that could be used completing homework. To our amazement, MOHELA said they could pay off the rest of her car payments! This caused the tears to flow. “Do you realize this is changing my entire life?!” exclaimed Faith. She will now be able to forgo one of her multiple jobs in order to focus more on her studies.
But the good news didn’t stop there.
They asked what else some of our college-aged youth needed that they could help with. Cat mentioned that one of our other youth, Josh, was in a rent predicament; the person he was splitting rent with moved out suddenly and he couldn’t afford to pay double. MOHELA, without hesitation, said they were more than willing to help pay half of Josh’s rent for the next seven months! Our jaws hit the floor.
MOHELA has a fund set aside in order to give back to the community. The truly are changing the lives of our youth one step at a time. We now have a great partnership with them, and they are willing to help with other school-related needs of the youth who are seeking to further their education. We cannot thank them enough for their support!