A Texas Tech employee set up a Go Fund Me account to raise money for a scholarship to give to incoming freshmen who have lost a parent.
Texas Tech’s Assistant Director of Career services in the Whitacre College of Engineering, Mackenzie Hamilton, spoke to KLBK and EverythingLubbock.com about her “Freshman Scholarship Campaign.”
“I’ve always learned to use my battles, my hardships, just to go out and help people and it really made me who I am today,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton lost her mother to cancer when she was fifteen years old.
“It was very difficult through my high school years,” Hamilton said. “I went through a lot of emotional hardships and it came to the point where I didn’t even know if I wanted to go to college.”
During a church sermon about investment at Lakeridge United Methodist, Hamilton said she wanted to take her life experience and provide support for local kids who are experiencing that same loss today.
Hamilton created the campaign only funded by donations to give to an incoming freshman at Texas Tech who has lost a parent. She said she wants to not only provide financial support, but emotional support as well.
“When you lose a parent, you’re losing a huge part of you,” Hamilton said. “And the foundation of everything you’re supposed to be in life. So I know that this student coming in their freshman year of college, they’re going to have emotional struggles.”
Hamilton added that she hopes to help personally pick the scholarship recipient.
“I think I’m going to see myself at that age. And I hope it does something for them and they can see value in it that they have a support system outside of their own family.”
Find the “Freshman Scholarship Campaign” here.