
STUDENTS
All contributions go through GrayKea directly to the student's university.

Jackie Murphy
Major:
Social Worker
"My parents were working as farmers on the paddy field, each earning $1 for every 8 hours of work. As a family of five, that meant we were living on $60 a month."

Emily Udel
Major:
Creative Writing
I have become a horde of poetry that sleeplessly pours out of me in the small hours of the night, of the lyrics behind songs without melodies, of novels whose endings I am eager to pen down.

Bhavana Gupta
Major:
Neuroscience
Indian Carnatic music is a part of me that rarely finds its way anywhere outside my Sunday morning classes.

Micheal Chen
Major:
Undeclared
I've been stuck in quarantine for many months now and recently I have been scrambling for scraps to keep my bank account from dying.

Wyatt Jones
Major:
General Studies
Since COVID started my mom has been laid off and my dad only works 3 days out of the week

Imani Washington
Major:
Journalism
"Between the political tension from where I come from to racism in the country that received me, I feel like I have to fight three times harder than others."

Luis Lopez
Major:
Molecular and cellular biology
I worked until 11 p.m. everyday, so juggling all of this became extremely difficult on a daily maximum if 4 hours of sleep.

Danilo Zane
Major:
CS + Econ
I want to be many things: an entrepreneur, a scientist, an engineer, a movie producer. If I stayed, I wouldn’t be able to achieve these things in the magnitude that I envision.

Deja Jackson
Major:
School of Social Work
I am a 20 year old black female Muslim and I am a sophomore at the University of Illinois majoring in social work. I have always wanted to be a doctor.

Piotr Nowak
Major:
integrative biology
My name is Jakub Klocek and I am currently a sophomore studying biology here at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

Jada Brown
Major:
Communications
I have 2 jobs, and apply for scholarships to try to make it work, and take every opportunity I can. With perseverance I know I can make it, and do all of the things my younger self always dreamed of.

Ava Harris
Major:
Interactive Media and Game Design
After I got the MRI done, I was sitting in a room with my mom when the doctor came in looking distraught and she proceeded to tell me I have breast cancer in stage 1B with a small tumor.

Asia Baker
Major:
Business Administration
I never let the limitations deter me from my dreams. My senior year, I saved as much money as I could, even leaving school on my lunch break to work for that hour.

Shanice Dixon
Major:
Political Science with minor in Public Policy
I do, but I think I would be doing a disservice to myself and others if I did not use the resources I was granted to pay it forward and help those in need the same way I was.

Diana Handl Choi
Major:
Business and Public Policy
My mother is undergoing chemotherapy. My immigrant father who provides for 5, is working in construction. While I watch my father and mother struggle, I am fighting for social justice and maintaining a 4.0 gpa’