CAHS graduate Hunter McClure
Courtesy Hunter McClure
A student at 草榴社区 (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, has used the UAH Last-Mile Fund (LMF) to launch his career.
Hunter McClure, like many of us, encountered his share of personal and academic obstacles in 2020; the Last-Mile Fund was there for him to ensure he could still graduate.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the UAH English major was already struggling to pay tuition and cover basic needs like utilities and rent. His job as a security guard in a factory paid poorly, but it allowed him the time to study. Then McClure was laid off. With the pandemic hitting shortly thereafter, job hunting came to a standstill.
When McClure contracted COVID-19 in April of 2020, he grappled with the fatigue associated with the illness. 鈥淚 was unable to do anything more than type the name and date on my papers,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 was forced to take an incomplete for two of my classes.鈥� As a result, McClure was unsure he鈥檇 be able to complete his degree. 鈥淒uring my last semester at UAH, I was worried my academic work would suffer. At one point, I considered dropping out of my Kierkegaard course so that I could redirect tuition money towards keeping food on my family鈥檚 table.鈥�
By the time McClure recovered, his fianc茅e was sick with COVID-19 herself and required his help. McClure received some money from the CARES Act, but that was short-lived, and he wasn鈥檛 eligible for federal stimulus checks because he was a dependent student. Job opportunities that offered flexible work schedules were non-existent. McClure was forced to seek assistance from his mother, but she was also financially strained due to her husband being out of work.
That鈥檚 where the Last-Mile Fund provided much-needed assistance. UAH鈥檚 Last-Mile Fund covers school-related expenses for undergraduate students who experience financial hardship in the last semesters before graduation. For students like McClure, this fund is a lifeline. The fund鈥檚 assistance allowed the English major to graduate on time and receive a fellowship to work for First Things magazine in Manhattan, NY.
鈥淭hree months after graduation, on the strength of a writing sample from the very course that I had once considered dropping, I was admitted to the Junior Fellowship at First Things, a magazine published by the Institute on Religion and Public Life.鈥� This opportunity provided McClure with the experience to break into professional editing.
Today, McClure is studying at the Graduate Institute at St. John鈥檚 College, a Great Books school in Santa Fe, NM; this destination has been a dream since he discovered the College at 19, and McClure thanks the Last-Mile Fund for helping him get there. 鈥淚 plan to go on to a Ph.D. in Political Theory and then enter classical education,鈥� he says. 鈥淲ithout the LMF, the direction of my life would be substantially different.鈥�