KLCC s Elizabeth Gabriel reports on financial aid in Oregon.
Yoyo is a high school junior in Eugene. We’re not using her last name to protect her privacy. Although Yoyo still has another year of high school, she’s already concerned about how she’s going to afford college. The 17-year-old works at a local Subway shop and her mom has a full-time job. Still, it’s hard to make ends meet and she doesn’t have a college savings.
And Yoyo sometimes has to explain to her friends the challenges her family faces.
“They just think that, ‘Oh, like, my dad is where he is because he worked hard,’ bullcrap. Because my mom works her butt off all the time. So hard work has nothing to do with it,” she said. “And I think that s the biggest misconception that people think, oh, if you just work hard, you ll get there. No, that s not true at all. Because you see people working hard all the time, and still barely being able to provide for their families.”