The coronavirus has brought many hardships to students around the world. Quinnipiac University is taking steps to ensure its students’ financial safety for the future through a Student Care Fund.

According to an article from the Washington Post, on Thursday, April 16, around 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment after President Trump declared a state of energy for the entire country.

Andrew Bernstein, the director of annual giving, is in charge of managing crowdfunding programs to help students at Quinnipiac, like the Student Care Funds.

“It’s really to support jobs that were lost for our students, parents, spouses, to aid essential student living expenses, food, rent and technology,” Bernstein said.

All students enrolled at Quinnipiac, either undergraduate or graduate, are able to apply for the Student Care Funds.

“There’s an application that they go on and fill out,” Bernstein said. “Basically any type of hardship that they’ve suffered because of COVID-19, they are able to apply to get a grant of up to $1,000.”

The money awarded to the students acts as a grant instead of a loan, so students will not have to pay back any money to Quinnipiac.

“The plan is for the fund to continue on beyond COVID-19,” Bernstein said.

Quinnipiac alumni, parents, friends, faculty and staff are some of the donors giving money to the student care funds. Bernstein has been seeking out ways to get in touch with the bobcat community to take care of student’s critical needs.

“We are reaching out via email and on social media,” Bernstein said. “Any way that we can do it virtually, we are going ahead and reaching out to those folks.”

After the Office of Financial Aid reviews the applications, students do not have to wait a long time to find out if they will be able to receive the award.

“They’re notified within three to five business days,” Bernstein said.

“Over 500 students have put in requests amounted to more than $400,000 in critical, present needs,” as stated in an email sent to Quinnipiac alumni, on Tuesday, March 31. As of Wednesday, April 22, $196,675 has been raised by 288 donors.

“The goal is to help as many students as we can possibly help during this unprecedented time,” Bernstein said.

Online learning is posing many challenges for students who do not own laptops or the proper supplies to complete their work.

“It’s a bunch of challenges for everyone and on top of the additional things that students are facing in this kind of time that we just don’t know,” Bernstein said.

All are welcome to donate money or sponsor a student. Donations to theStudent Care Fund can be made at alumni.qu.edu/studentcarefund. Questions and/ or concerns can be sent to [email protected].

“It’s not just Quinnipiac,” Bernstein said. “It is worldwide, where things are happening to students and we are just a resource that they can go ahead and apply to get money as these hardships happen.”

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