An Important Message

I send you this message because something has come to my attention that has been pulling at my heart strings, and I wanted to bring it to your attention too so that we have a fighting chance to do something about it together.

George Evans is from the Bahamas, and is thus an international student at our lovely Queen’s Law. That means his tuition is that of an international student, which is significantly more than the domestic amount. Last month he shared with me while we were hanging out over the summer working on OCIs that it was likely he wasn’t going to be able to register for classes due to an outstanding amount owed on his tuition from last year. This concern has come to fruition, and he is not enrolled at Queen’s anymore, was not able to hand in his OCI applications, and is currently in limbo as to whether he can continue on with his legal education.

Since George is not a Canadian citizen, he is ineligible for Canadian government student loans, and is unable to apply for a student line of credit. He is also not allowed to apply for most scholarships until he is a student again. His VISA allows him to be in Canada as a student, which means he cannot work here in Canada at this time, either. All of these factors, combined with an unfortunate change in the financial situation of his mother back home, on whom he was relying on for help with tuition, has rendered George unable to do anything at all about this situation.

Upon hearing this news, I personally got, and am still, pretty emotional about all of this. Each of you knows George to varying degrees and while all will have had different interactions and experiences with him at Queen’s law over the past year, I think collectively we all know just how special he is. I personally don’t know anyone else who stayed on campus for well over 24 hours studying without going home (or sleeping.. or eating..) during exams. George has a genuine passion for the law, and is generous with his time and talent; he has been known for giving anything and everything to any one of us if he thought there was even just a chance it was needed.

George is literally one of the best people I have ever met in my entire life. He is an extremely caring, devoted, hard-working, funny, generous, and overall lovely person. He is someone that genuinely deserves to be where we are all just so lucky to be. I can’t face the thought that someone who is so deserving won’t be there with us, making us smile during the fun times and tough challenges we will surely face this year, and getting his own chance to live his dream and experience success. So, I decided that he is too great, and life is too short, to stand by and do nothing.

I’ve set up this website as an avenue for people to contribute money, if they wish, in the hopes we can reach the amount George needs to be able to once again be enrolled as a student at Queen’s Law. The funds are (of course) going straight from this PayPal account into a cheque made out to the University, payable towards his account. In the event that we fall short, and don’t raise enough, the funds are going to be tracked and returned to you in full. If George’s family comes into some money in the meantime and is able to contribute rendering our efforts above our goal, we will reimburse each of you proportionately and promptly.

In closing, I just feel from the bottom of my heart that we are all so lucky to be where we are and to be Canadians and to be able to go to such an awesome school and live in our great country, and that if we can do this it will be one of the best things we all will ever have been a part of.

If you are able to contribute, please do so because I truly think we can do this. In making this plan, I have considered the number of law students and friends of George, and the amount required to allow him to re-enroll. If everyone who is able could donate $100, we can do this. There have already been some very generous and lovely individuals who have committed to donate, and I have so much confidence in all of us.

Note that I did speak with George and secured his permission for all of this. He was, of course, exceptionally touched, grateful, emotional, and overwhelmed. He told me he couldn’t believe he had such great friends, but all I could say is that I think I must speak on behalf of all of us when I say we feel exactly the same way about him.

Of course, if I have included you in the link to this site and you are unable to donate for any reason at all, please know that that is absolutely and completely fine, we won’t be keeping tabs or anything like that AT ALL—it’s up to you. If $100 is too much and you were able to contribute a lesser amount it would be so, so appreciated also.

I personally know that if all of this had happened without my knowledge and I had heard one day in the coming weeks/months that George wasn’t at school, and/or had to go back home and had left quietly (which I’m sure he would have preferred—but sorry George, that’s not how I roll, and that’s not how this amazing Queen’s Law community rolls) I would have been so sad to not only not have known about this situation, but moreso not had the opportunity to do something so simple as donate the same amount of money I have spent at MyBar this week—let’s be honest, it’s probably less.

If there is anyone I have neglected to invite to this site that you feel would be sympathetic to this cause please do not hesitate to send him/her/them the link. As well, if you have any questions AT ALL about what I’m trying to do and how it is going to work, PLEASE e-mail me at dana.carson@queensu.ca or message me on facebook, or arrange a time to meet with me. I’m happy to answer any and all questions. If you have problems donating online, please email katherine.chau@queensu.ca and we'll sort it out!

Sincere thanks for being who you are, Queen’s Law, and for spreading the love.

From,

Dana Carson— “dreamer, and lover of people so much it hurts”
Katherine Chau—“technological dreamboat and tough love extraordinaire”

P.S. Please feel free to comment below and share with us your own feelings about George!