Emergency funding lifts MATC students
Growing number needing assistance
Two years ago, Kristine Terounzo moved from South Carolina to Milwaukee after multiple tragedies struck her life. In 2016 her mother passed away from a heart attack, and in 2017 her husband died in a car accident on his way home from work.
She and her husband were trying to have children for years. Four days after burying him, she found out she was pregnant.
“I just wanted to start over,” said Terounzo, an early childhood education major at Milwaukee Area Technical College.
Seven months pregnant, she created a new life in Milwaukee to prepare for the birth of her daughter. She had a job, an apartment and enrolled at MATC for the fall 2018 semester.
“Everything I built up, I paid for,” Terounzo said. “I was really proud.”
Then last October Terounzo’s apartment caught fire, leaving her with nothing but her daughter and the clothes on their backs.
Terounzo said the first thought running through her mind besides her daughter’s immediate safety was her grades.
“I wanted to keep myself on the honor roll and do the best I could as an example not only for her but for myself,” Terounzo said.
Within days she was in contact with FAST (Faculty and Students Together) Fund, an emergency financial assistance fund run by AFT Local 212, the faculty union on campus.
The fund immediately provided her with diapers, baby toys and baby clothes. They made sure professors knew about her situation. And a couple of days later, she was called into the Local 212 offices and was presented with a new laptop, as she takes all her classes online.
“It brought me to tears,” Terounzo said.
The FAST Fund, launched in 2016, has seen a dramatic increase in the number of students it provides assistance to this year. In 2018, the fund helped 104 students using just under $37,000. Since July 1, the fund has already supported 87 students using a little over $25,000. The majority of students rely on the FAST Fund because of housing or food insecurity.
Michael Rosen, former president of AFT Local 212, facilitates FAST Fund. Rosen had been teaching economics at MATC for 29 years before he retired in 2017. He said he has seen his students struggle economically and psychologically, leaving no room for emergencies.
“The FAST Fund is a band-aid that helps shine a light on systematic problems,” Rosen said.
DACA student works to get ahead
Denis Montero-Diaz was brought here illegally by his parents from Mexico in 2002 and was unable to receive any financial aid. A DACA recipient, he works 52 hours a week at a shipping company and is majoring in economics. In 2017, his dad was deported and the small family business he ran had to close.
Having to take on a lot more responsibility, he was almost unable to enroll at MATC for the fall 2017 semester because he did not have enough money.
“You do think about giving up,” Montero-Diaz said. He said he was at a point where he was choosing between his education and putting a roof over his head.
FAST Fund was able to provide tuition assistance for Montero-Diaz. He said the fund has “been the difference for me as far as being able to evolve as a student.”
Students in need
In an MATC study published last December, researchers found 29 percent of students said they had experienced a need for food because of lack of money, and 21 percent had been unable to pay their full rent or mortgage. Sixty-one percent of MATC students received financial aid in the 2016-’17 academic year.
Rosen said most of the students using the FAST Fund are single mothers who are trying to pursue their own American dream.
“They are doing what America tells them to do. You are supposed to work and go to school, they are trying to juggle all of that and the rules are stacked against them.” Rosen said.
One of those mothers is Tequila Burris. Burris, 28, is in her second year at MATC studying human services. Burris said she did not know if she was going to be able to come back this semester. She is currently couch-jumping and living out of her car with her two children.
Burris was a student at MATC 10
years ago but dropped out after her brother was murdered her freshman year. In the same year, Burris was charged with possession of marijuana and has been living with a felony on her record.
Because of her felony, she has been unable to get an apartment and has been experiencing homelessness this semester. She said being labeled a felon has been like a “death sentence.”
“If I’m on campus, and I haven’t eaten all day, I slept in my car last night, how much information do you think I’m retaining?” Burris said.
Rosen said sometimes students just need social connections. Burris was at a voter outreach event when her professor, David Weingrod, suggested she go to the FAST Fund. The FAST Fund is currently helping Burris get the felony off her record.
The FAST Fund started in 2016, through a grant given by former UWMadison professor Sara Goldrick-Rab. Goldrick-Rab, now with Temple University, spent years researching the financial challenges college students face, specifically in Milwaukee. In her book, “Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid and the Betrayal of the American Dream,” she talks about major flaws in our financial aid system.
“I don’t knock the colleges, I knock the system,” Goldrick-Rab said.
She said students can’t focus on their studies when they’ve given up work hours for classes and can’t afford to pay their living costs.
For the majority of students, the FAST Fund is an option if they don’t qualify for Dreamkeepers, MATC’s emergency aid system.
Receiving an emergency grant from Dreamkeepers requires students to also be a beneficiary of the federal Pell Grant. It must be a one-time occurrence and they must also provide documentation of the financial emergency.
“They’ve learned they have to police every dollar,” Goldrick-Rab said, which makes it difficult to get money to the students quickly.
FAST Fund has a 48-hour turn-around. To receive funding, students need to have a recommendation from a professor. The fund is able to provide emergency aid up to $500. Fund administrators can be flexible with what they consider to be emergencies, such as buying textbooks and technology needed for classes.
Rosen said they do not give the money directly to the students. In most cases, the money goes to the issue, such as a rent or car payment.
Other examples of students using the FAST Fund include a business student, homeless for three weeks getting money to secure temporary housing. A mother of four, abandoned by her partner, was able to avoid eviction because of FAST Fund. A nursing student who needed an iPad for her clinical in two days received one from the fund.
The majority of the money pouring into the fund comes from the MATC faculty. Marlene Dombrowski has been a professor for 34 years and has recommended her students go to the FAST Fund.
Dombrowski said she has been able to identify and recognize student’s needs.
“They have enough stress in their life,” Dombrowski said. She said the cost of education at state schools should be affordable for low-income students. Donations to the FAST Fund can be addressed to Local 212 Fast Fund, 739 W. Juneau Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53233.
“If I’m on campus, and I haven’t eaten all day, I slept in my car last night, how much information do you think I’m retaining?” Tequila Burris MATC student helped by FAST Fund