Letter to the Dean of Admissions from an impecunious college student who is about to take out a mortgage on his education simply becuase he has no where else left on this planet to go...

January 05, 2004

 

David L. Pardieck

1501 W. Bradley Ave.

Peoria, IL 61625

 

 

Dear Mr. Pardieck:

 

Throughout my five-year career as a “professional student” I have been subjected to many personal and financial impediments that have greatly setback my academic progress. In 1996 I was hospitalized with an acute pancreatic flare-up and coerced into missing several weeks of school at Illinois Central College. That same year my grandfather was killed in a head on collision. The next year my grandmother and surrogate guardian fell victim to cancer and I got a full time job in order to make ends meet.

 

I arrived at Bradley in 1998, polishing my GPA with a 4.0 my first semester on campus. Always lurking around the corner with a devious smirk were the calamities and, after a fatal car-accident upstaged by ‘internal domestic drama’ I left Peoria for Illinois State University, only to be greeted with the news that my eleven year old cousin had committed suicide.

 

I took multifarious third shift jobs and ended up back in Peoria as a Teacher Assistant for District 150. However, in the early weeks of 2002, the ubiquitous cancer struck again, this time suddenly usurping the life of my father. Six months later, I arrived back on campus, destitute but determined to graduate. I was enrolled part-time and worked two full time jobs (eighty-hours a week) in order to make university payments.

 

In November 2002, my roommate was hospitalized for three months, beseeching more house payments culled from my pocketbook. After four months, my roommates and I lost our house, and I did the Bohemian thing and moved into my station wagon for two months, while simultaneously working two jobs and chiseling away at my BU credits.

 

Turbulence, trauma, and more relatives planted into the earth, I would very much like to accelerate my setbacks and rectify my collegiate trajectory by completing my B.A. as soon as possible. I understand that I have more W’s listed on my transcript than an internet address. However, I am bound and determined to graduate and will work with diligence and vigor in the accomplishment of this goal if I were granted the opportunity.

 

With gratitude,

 

 

David A. VonBehren

Impecunious college student