Larger Florida schools provide a free food pantry and a fully staffed department to help address shelter and food insecurity. Lynn's homeless and hungry students are on a smaller campus that can provide personalized and discreet solutions.
"Perhaps as the scholarship grows, we can create a food pantry or develop more resources to help these students find long-term housing," said Sainthilaire, now a program manager at Miami-Dade College. "But for now, we're focusing on the hunger issue by dispersing funds through students' meal cards."
The scholarship is a collaborative effort of key individuals on campus: annual giving staff, financial aid and academic advisors, student affairs personnel, faculty, dining hall managers, and the education and counseling departments, whose undergraduates helped Sainthilaire develop the concept. Aware of the stigma associated with hunger and homelessness, any of them may tactfully identify students in need, then provide them with a scholarship-funded meal card, no questions asked, no waiting for approval—and absolutely no shame.
Jennifer Lesh, associate professor in the College of Education, was Sainthilaire's professor and evaluated her dissertation. Lesh wasn't surprised that Sainthilaire's study of student hunger and homelessness evolved into a sustainable social impact project, sincere in its concern for each student's dignity and success.
"We take for granted the power we have as individuals to change someone's life," Sainthilaire said. "Anybody at any time can become food insecure or shelter insecure—the pandemic has taught us that. Just a little extra can help a student make it through."
A National Institutes of Health study from February 2021 found that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in nearly 60% of U.S. college students becoming less food secure. A well-documented negative correlation exists between food insecurity and academic performance, affecting student grade point average, attendance and graduation rates.
As is true of homeless and hungry students across the country, Sainthilaire's research participants come from diverse backgrounds. Some aged out of the foster system, some from abusive homes and others from supportive but low-income single-parent households. Still, she identified commonalities in their experiences and their determination to overcome all obstacles.
"They have so much perseverance," she said. "Their whole goal is to put themselves in a better circumstance, to get out of homelessness, to find a good job to provide for themselves and their families so they're never worried about their next meal. What motivates them is earning their degree. That's the light at the end of the tunnel."
That certainly was true for Jack.
"I was like, well, if you do not graduate, you are not going to be able to do better than you are doing now," he said. "Stuff happens, but I'm still okay. I had professors who helped me out, and so I was able to get it done."
Of the 10 students in Sainthilaire's study, nine have graduated, Jack among them.
If you would like to contribute to the Education is the Key Scholarship fund, please contact Sherry A. Henry.
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Lynn alumna creates scholarship to help… - Lynn University
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