Technology is so advanced these days that I barely blink when I hear what some teens are doing with digital gadgets. However, when I learned what 17-year-old Rachel Harris was doing with the help of the World Wide Web, I must admit, I was intrigued.
The Michigan high school senior apparently doesn’t have wealthy parents to help her pay for her college education, so she’s taking matters into her own hands. The honor student has always dreamed of attending the prestigious University of Notre Dame, located in South Bend, Indiana. The problem: Coming up with nearly $50,000 to pay for a year’s worth of tuition, fees, room and board.
Determined not to let money come in between her and her dream of attending the Roman Catholic school, Harris recently launched a website to help her raise money to cover her college expenses.
The idea of harnessing the power of the Internet to solicit strangers to donate cash to a specific cause is not exactly novel, but the content Harris has displayed on her site caught my eye. The teen’s website includes copies of her Notre Dame application form, letters of recommendation and her high school transcript. Harris currently has a 3.97 grade-point average and is ranked 10th in her class at Reeths-Puffer High School in Muskegon County’s Muskegon Township. The ingenious teen says she plans to pursue a degree in biomolecular engineering at Notre Dame, and then attend medical school to become a pediatric endocrinologist.
I would be surprised if Harris was able to collect $50,000 from her high-tech idea… and so does she. Fortunately, the Notre Dame hopeful says she has a back-up plan. Harris says she has applied for at least 10 scholarships and is hoping to generate at least a portion of the money through Internet donations.
Personally, I don’t see the harm in Harris’ money making venture, though I’m not quite sure I would allow my own daughter to go this route. I would probably encourage my child to work an additional job during the summer months and apply for a loan before I allowed her to beg for donations from perfect strangers via the Internet. What’s more, I know for a fact that my own parents would have never let any of their children turn to the web to generate money for college. My father would have made me delay my entrance into college until I had enough money to pay for it myself or suggest that I attend a state school or community college where tuition is significantly lower than Notre Dame.
Would you allow your kids to follow Harris’ lead?
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