Jumping Hurdles

In September 2018, Christina Hampton was working two part-time jobs as a food server, raising her young daughter and taking classes at Trident Technical College when she heard that Hurricane Florence was headed to Charleston. 

A mandatory evacuation was ordered and both restaurants for which she worked were shutting down. Christina was worried about her daughter’s safety, so she went to stay with a friend inland.

But what scared her the most was what might happen immediately afterward.

“As a single mother who is almost always struggling to make ends meet, missing a few days of work can be detrimental,” she says. “But I am working hard to finish school and that is what keeps me going.” 

Christina never thought she would go to college. Nobody in her family had ever gone and her grades were mostly average. She ran track, but never thought she was good enough to get scholarships.

She remembers all of her friends talking about going away to college and says, “I never even considered college as an option. The money wasn’t there anyway, so why bother?” 

Christina was working as a cashier at Publix - making decent money but putting in a lot of hours - when a friend told her about Trident Technical College. She knew she needed to do something else in order to provide a better life and future for her daughter and so she enrolled in the Network Systems Management program. In order to be more flexible, Christina started working in the restaurant industry.

“It hasn’t been easy trying to juggle everything. Sometimes it feels like I am back on my high school track team, leaping over the hurdles that seem to come one after another,” she says.

By the time classes resumed after the hurricane, Christina was about to get her electricity turned off and was a month behind on her rent. She was completely distraught and had nowhere to turn for help.

One day she was telling a classmate that she would probably have to drop her classes so she could work and keep a roof over her daughter's head. Her instructor overheard her, pulled her aside and said, “Go speak with Frank Morea in Counseling Services. He might be able to help.”

It took Christina a few days to muster up the courage to go see Mr. Morea.

“I was scared and embarrassed. I didn’t want to ask for help,” she says.

But when she eventually went, she immediately felt better. Frank told her about several community resources that may be of assistance, as well as the TTC Student Urgent Needs (SUN) Fund, which was created to provide one-time assistance for students who have an unforeseen financial emergency that might prevent them from continuing their studies.

Christina submitted her application and cried tears of joy when it was approved, relieved that she would not have to drop her classes.

She says, “When Mr. Morea told me that the funding for the program comes from donations, I was so inspired by the generosity of the people who support it that I vowed I would be successful in my program.”

Christina is currently in her last semester at Trident Tech and has already been offered a position at a large technology company in Charleston. 

She is grateful for her Trident Tech experience.

“TTC is not just a college,” she says. “It’s a community filled with people who sincerely want to help students be successful.”

Created in 2010, the Student Urgent Needs Fund has helped hundreds of students stay in college, distributing more than $98,000. In the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, 38 students were assisted for a total of $16,453, almost double the support from the year before.

If you would like to help, please make your gift to the Student Urgent Needs Fund today.

 

Names and identities are changed to protect the privacy of SUN recipients.