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Hi there! My name is Adelina. I’m a 4th year PhD student in the Earth and Environmental Sciences department at Columbia University. I research a sustainable and low-cost water treatment technology for removing arsenic and uranium from drinking water. I have a strong passion for public health and social justice. I come from a low-income background, I’m the first in my family to go to college, and I have disabilities that require frequent medical expenses. I’m making this GoFundMe to ask for debt relief and support with monthly bills. I will use the donated funds to help pay off my high-interest debt (>$20,000) and ensure that I can afford rent and groceries for the next few months while paying off loans.
My wage as a PhD student researcher is well below the cost of living in New York City. I make $41,000 after taxes, and my expected cost of living in NYC is roughly $68,000 according to the MIT Living Wage Calculator. I usually live paycheck to paycheck. But recently, I am having a much harder time making ends meet. I have limited funds for emergencies. I have no savings, only debt. I had zero debt before coming to Columbia. In 2022, I graduated from Princeton University. My expected family contribution was zero, I had Pell Grants, and Princeton is a wealthy and generous institution. I now have upwards of $20,000 in debt from personal loans, just to afford to pay rent and buy groceries in NYC. I was denied SNAP because I make “too much money” with my PhD stipend. I have gone to food pantries because they don’t ask you for proof of income. For the first 9 months of my PhD, my husband was unemployed, and while living in Columbia housing, 67% of my income went to rent. I was forced to tutor and take other side jobs just to afford to eat. I was forced to limit time on my PhD, just to afford rent. In the middle of fieldwork in spring 2023, I had to tutor a student on Zoom, and I had to explain to my advisor that I was struggling financially, so severely, that I needed to take time away from my fieldwork trip so that I could afford my bills.
My disabilities are another considerable expense. Thanks to my labor union, Student Workers of Columbia (SWC), I am able to get some medical expenses reimbursed through the SWC Health Fund. However, I may not even be able to get those reimbursements because Columbia University is currently holding those funds hostage while SWC bargains for a better contract. It is devastating that Columbia University is trying to deny me access to those reimbursements.
At Columbia, I am also a Provost Doctoral Fellow. I received a $10,000 grant at the start of my PhD. I spent all of it within a few months, living in NYC and living in “subsidized” University housing. I am an example of the type of student that is typically excluded from higher education. Only 3% of first-generation college students go on to do a master’s or PhD program, as of 2017 [1]. Low wages and minimal financial support are huge barriers and result in extreme injustice and educational inequity.
Thank you for reading my story. If you are able to contribute to this fund, I would greatly appreciate it. It is difficult to focus on my PhD research while dealing with such financial insecurity. I love my job, I love being a scientist, and I love getting to do this work. It is tragic that I have to deal with this debt as someone who just wants to earn a PhD but does not come from money.
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