Post-secondary school is expensive. But that’s not going to stop 32-year-old Toni Morgan from attending her dream school — Harvard — for a Master’s in Education. Morgan, who was a high school dropout, has surpassed her goal of raising $50,000 to use towards her tuition and living expenses during the one year program.
Morgan spent her teenager years bouncing from shelter to shelter, after she dropped out of school when a vice-principal told her she would never earn a university degree. She eventually managed to save enough money doing odd jobs to enroll a Ryerson and graduate with a Bachelor of Arts specializing in equity and diversity studies.
While working on her degree, Morgan’s interest in the education system grew. “Once you’re outside of the education system, you learn a lot about what’s wrong,” she said. She thinks part of the reason she struggled so much with education is the lack of resources. She’s also interested in what would lead someone like a vice-principal who is supposed to be encouraging students, to tell one that they won’t amount to anything.
She currently works as a non-profit programming director, but decided she wanted the opportunity to bring her unique perspective to the education system. She applied to Harvard’s Masters of Education program, hoping to focus on non-traditional and alternative education. When she got the acceptance letter, she cried. “It felt unreal,” she said.
But being accepted is only half the battle when one year at Harvard was going to cost approximately $71,000 US. Tuition alone was $50,000, with another $21,000 budgeted for living expenses.
She launched her GoFundMe campaign, entitled “Harvard Bound” in hopes of raising the $50,000 tuition by May 15th, and has been overwhelmed by the positive support so far.
Morgan hopes the Master’s program, which starts this fall, will allow her to “support alternative education organizations that focus on the arts, digital learning, and economic development in a meaningful way.”
