A Letter from Jonathan

Dear Friend,

My name is Jonathan, and I am a Berea College senior from Pompton Lakes, New Jersey. Thank you very much for giving me the chance to build my future at Berea College.

I am studying Economics with a concentration in Methods and Models, and I’m minoring in Mathematics. I have two labor positions here on campus. I am the Annual Giving Student Manager and a teaching assistant for Business and Economics courses. I even had the chance to work at the College during summer breaks as a teaching and research assistant for the Entrepreneurship for the Public Good (EPG) program, helping one of my favorite professors design his coursework. Thanks to the Internship & Career Development office, I also received funding for an internship with the Berea Arts Council. These opportunities for valuable work experiences provided by Berea College continue to be a blessing, especially as I prepare my résumé for life after graduation.

Berea has opened many doors for me. I could even go as far as saying that this place saved me. I had to take two years off between high school and college, struggling to support my father and me. I worked seven days a week for around 70 hours a week, delivering pizza and washing cars, just to barely make ends meet. I desperately wanted to get out of my situation, and the only way was to go to college. I was the only one in my household able to work, and I did not have the means to finance my own education.

Thankfully, my aunts told me about this place in Kentucky called Berea College and told me that it does not charge tuition for its students. I was skeptical at first, and I was nervous to leave everything behind. But it just felt right, so I packed up my car and drove down to Berea for my in-person admissions interview, where I fell in love with Berea College. I will never forget taking my first walk around campus and actually feeling like I belonged somewhere—like I had found the place I could call home. Thank you for making that feeling possible for me.

Now I have found my home here in Berea, and I am accomplishing milestones that I never thought would happen. None of this would have been possible without the generosity of donors like you. If not for you, I would still be back home in New Jersey working seven days a week, struggling to survive instead of building myself a future. I had always been told that my dreams were “far-fetched” and that I would never achieve my goals, but your support contradicts those messages. For that, I will always be grateful and forever indebted to your kindness. Thank you very much for everything.

Best,