{"id":145712,"date":"2025-03-21T15:34:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T19:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=145712"},"modified":"2025-03-24T12:47:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T16:47:15","slug":"the-last-line-of-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/the-last-line-of-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Line of Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entering his final semester majoring in kinesiology, Ryan Hatcher \u201923<\/strong> found himself homeless.<\/p>\n

His legal guardian \u2014 the woman who raised him and whom he considers his mom \u2014 was notified in June that her property manager had sold the home they were renting, and they had 30 days to move out. He bounced around a bit, living in his car briefly and with another family that proved toxic, before he was able to secure a room in UCF\u2019s NorthView.<\/p>\n

It came with a cost: That was the first time in his four years in college that Hatcher, who paid for both Valencia and UCF with the Department of Children and Families\u2019 Foster Child Tuition Waiver, had taken out a student loan. He needed the money to cover the cost of his apartment.<\/p>\n

UCF Day of Giving is April 10<\/em><\/strong>. Consider supporting UCF students through difficult times by giving to the Student Emergency Fund<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then, he learned he also needed an emergency root canal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m someone who doesn\u2019t really like to ask for support until I really feel like I need it,\u201d Hatcher says. \u201cI try to do things by myself as much as I can. But I didn\u2019t have insurance, and I didn\u2019t have the money to pay for a root canal.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s exactly the type of unplanned predicament that UCF’s Student Emergency Fund is designed to help with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of the Student Emergency Fund is to ensure that students have the financial support they need when faced with those short-term crises or emergencies, which can look different for each and every student,\u201d says Tammie Nadeau, director of Student Care Services. \u201cOur role is to ensure that those basic, short-term needs \u2014 whether it\u2019s housing, food, transportation or medical \u2014 are met by the Emergency Fund Committee so that students can be successful and move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Nadeau, her team receives roughly 100 requests a month for assistance. Typically, they\u2019re in response to an emergency, such as the loss of a job or a natural disaster, including when a nearby apartment complex flooded and students needed to find \u2014 and pay for \u2014 temporary housing. But there are also simply random events, such as when a student\u2019s car caught on fire and she lost her textbooks and laptop and didn\u2019t have the money to replace everything.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when students can apply for up to $2,500 per degree for assistance. Every Thursday, a committee comprised of Nadeau and staff members from Student Care Services, financial aid, the Registrar\u2019s Office and Student Accounts Services gather to review applications and ensure students have exhausted every other resource. Not every student will qualify for financial aid reasons. Those that do are invited to meet remotely with the committee and review their request. For Hatcher, that included sharing his X-rays, the cost of the procedure and how he had used his other funding.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s nice to know that as a student, UCF provides a security net in the form of the Student Emergency Fund.\u201d \u2014 Ryan Hatcher \u201923<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s remarkable how this fund has been elevated to a place where we\u2019re not only able to support our students with their basic needs, but also to respond to emergencies and crises as they occur,\u201d says Nadeau, who says they often receive calls from other universities asking how they\u2019re able to get so many different departments to the table and award funds so quickly. \u201cBecause it\u2019s so easy to get derailed when something unexpected comes up. Without this funding, many of our students probably wouldn\u2019t still be at UCF \u2014 or in college. Many times, this fund is a last resource for students who have nowhere else to go.<\/p>\n

For Hatcher, the funding helped ensure he completed his bachelor\u2019s on time \u2014 as the first person in his birth family to earn a college degree. He\u2019s now in his second semester of grad school at UCF, pursuing a master\u2019s in public administration because he wants to \u201chelp others like myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s corny to say this, but the people at Student Care Services really do care,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re consistently at the forefront of making going to UCF the best experience possible for students. And it\u2019s nice to know that as a student, UCF provides a security net in the form of the Student Emergency Fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

For students in need, please fill out and submit the Student Emergency Fund application<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For students experiencing unexpected expenses like Ryan Hatcher \u201923<\/strong>, the Student Emergency Fund can often mean the difference between making rent, buying food, receiving medical care \u2014 and not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":145715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,6,27],"tags":[18219,3703,14918],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-145712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-community","category-student-life","tag-community-impact","tag-philanthropy","tag-student-life"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Last Line of Defense | University of Central Florida News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For students experiencing unexpected expenses 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