Before her father’s accident, Karen was always up for an adventure. Despite her parents’ divorce, the pair remained close. “On the weekends, we’d go four-wheeling, fishing…Anywhere he really wanted to go,” she recalled.   

But all that changed one September when Karen’s father pinched a nerve in his back due to an accident. From that day forward, his life—and Karen’s—changed. 

“All he wanted to do was work. And he could barely be on his feet. He could barely walk around,” Karen explained. Eventually, she, her mother, and her stepfamily moved in with Karen’s dad to keep him from losing his house. “My mom tells me he built the house for me.” 

Unfortunately, years of legal battles and misdiagnoses meant Karen’s father never actually received a worker’s compensation claim before his death. After his passing, Karen’s mom picked up the torch, fighting a long battle to ensure the family at least got a settlement. 

But even that wasn’t enough to put Karen through college without a few challenges. “Money is so important, especially to get yourself through college… And it brought me to a point where I felt that I had to make a decision where either I need to use my financial resources to live or go to college.” Without her dad’s income and support, Karen found herself struggling to stay afloat.

Thankfully, she found support in one state-specific group, Trio Student Support Services. “They help students who are first-generation, nontraditional, or come from a low financial bracket. And I qualified for the program because I’m first generation.” 

It was through Trio that Karen came to find Kids’ Chance in her sophomore year of college. She’d started her search with scholarships specific to her state when she discovered a lifeline. “At first, I was taken aback. This was described as a scholarship that was so niche… And I’m like, that is me.”  

With help from the volunteers at Kids’ Chance of Maine (KCME), Karen successfully applied for and received one of their scholarships. With the assistance Kids’ Chance provided, Karen was able to focus less on work and more on studies. “I saw my grades skyrocket. It was amazing. And I saw that I had more time in the summer to apply for internships.” 

Karen now serves as a Kids’ Chance Ambassador, using her story and experiences to help others in the same position find out about the program. “I think it deserves more outreach. And I wanted to be that person.”