Success Stories

Cassie DeFillipo

Since this past June, I have been working as the marketing intern for the College Goal Oregon event. When OSAC hired me, I was thrilled to have the chance to share with others a gift I had received years ago during my own college application process: The ability to receive financial aid and fund my future because of it.

By the time I was six years old, I knew I would go to college. I don’t know how I knew, but I somehow did. I am a first-generation college student, and my parents never told me I had to go. I just knew I would. Maybe it was based on some of the characters from one of the hundreds of books I read while enjoying my favorite pastime. Maybe it was my intuitive plot to escape the small town of Klamath Falls where I grew up. I am still not sure how I knew, but this knowledge stayed with me until I was a senior in high school beginning the college application process.

I knew my parents couldn’t pay for college, and in all honesty I didn’t understand loans, so I felt I had to get a scholarship if I wanted to achieve my dream. I took the SAT and the ACT, started researching colleges, and worked on my resume. I also spent a lot of time online and in the counseling office looking for and applying to scholarships. I filled out scholarship applications almost every day at lunch.

Filling out the applications was tenuous and overwhelming at times. I didn’t know who to turn to but needed help, so I went to my high school counselor. She was helpful but unwilling to dedicate too much of her time to me. I left her office when the secretary, Mrs. Mason, volunteered to help me fill them out. “You’re much too busy for that,” my high school counselor told her. I remember wanting to leave and thinking that I could figure it out on my own, but Mrs. Mason helped me anyway and answered any and all questions I had.

Once when I made my practically daily run to the counseling office, I saw a note on an application for an athlete and doctor’s son at our school. The note was from my high school counselor saying she had finished filling out his application. I was shocked. And hurt. From that point on, I went to Mrs. Mason.

When I started the college application process, I felt as if no one really believed in me. Even my parents thought my funding the tuition of a university was rather unlikely—or at least that’s how it felt to me. I would say, “When I go to college…” and my parents would respond, “if you go to college...” They weren’t trying to hurt me, but they were trying to be realistic.

Mrs. Mason always believed in me. She was always willing to take time out to help me achieve my dream. She even told me about this application that I just had to submit—one where I could apply for many different scholarships by filling out just one application. The day she received them in the counseling office, she didn’t even wait for me to come in. She sent one to me in class.

As graduation neared, I began to win scholarships. The first was $200, but it was something. Then I won others. They were mostly one-year scholarships, but I was ecstatic just to know I would get to attend the school I had chosen: the University of Oregon. I had been accepted into the Honors College, it had a strong journalism program, and it was close to home yet far enough to give me freedom.

One day, I received a letter in the mail telling me I was a finalist for a scholarship that, after following a certain equation, would cover about 90 percent of all my college expenses for all four years. I would have an interview in a few weeks. Chills ran through my body. I didn’t even remember applying for such a scholarship.

The scholarship was the Ford scholarship, and I had checked a box next to it while filling out the OSAC application simply because I was eligible. I had no idea that it was worth so much, or that it would change my life so drastically. The day I received the letter telling me that I was a Ford Scholar class of 2003, I was excited and thankful. But not as thankful as I am today.

Over each of the past four years, the impact of the scholarship in my life has compounded. It allowed me to do so many things I might not otherwise have gotten to do. First, it allowed me to focus on classes and enjoy all that campus life has to offer. From extracurricular activities to dance classes, I am able to enjoy them because I don’t have to run off to a job in order to pay for my schooling. I am able to spend time in my teachers’ office hours and dedicate the time to doing my schoolwork right.

This scholarship allowed me to make not one but many of my dreams come true. I had always wanted to see the world, something I had never had the ability to do, and because I didn’t have to work over the summer to save money for school, I was able to take an amazing opportunity and spend a summer in Korea. My plane ticket was paid for and I received a living stipend for working as a camp counselor at a military base.

I also studied in Italy for a semester during my junior year, which had been another dream of mine for most of my life because of my Italian ancestry. I traveled in Europe and learn many lessons about the world and myself along the way.

On top of it all, the mere fact that I am able to receive my degree loan-free in four years is a gift. My older siblings, one 25 and the other 22, both have attended community college off-and-on for years and will both receive their associates (2-year degree) at the same time I receive my bachelor’s.

I am now less than two terms away from receiving my B.A. from the University of Oregon with a major in journalism: magazine and a minor in business administration with a professional distinction in international communications. That diploma will be much more to me than a piece of paper. It will be a certification of the changes I have undergone during the past four years. They are too numerous to count, but I have learned how to think critically and have gained confidence in myself. I have developed my perception of the world. When I receive my diploma, it will be a certified opportunity for me to make positive changes in my life and in the lives of people around me.

This doesn’t mean that I haven’t faced my fair share of struggles, because I have. I’ve walked home crying, wanted to quit, wanted to hit walls, ached to be with my family, felt totally alone, and wondered if I am out of my league. There have been professors who weren’t able to give me the help I needed, and I have doubted my abilities.

Despite the times I have felt unsupported, there have been many more times where my professors have gone out of their way for me, believed in me, and supported me. There have been times where I have broken barriers and understood concepts I didn’t think I could understand, times where I created things I didn’t know I had the talent to create. Each time this happens, it is a strong reminder that I am here for a reason. I have a purpose.

There is an expression that it takes a village to raise a child. I wanted to go to college based on a dream, but the people around me have enabled me time after time to pursuit my passion. For that, I am grateful to all the people who have guided me through this process and offered me their kindness and aid. Scholarships like mine allow people the opportunity to change their reality, which is the first step in making positive differences in the world.

I have forgiven my high school counselor. After four years of college, I understand that the reason she didn’t help me had to do with her issues and what she was going through in her own life; it had nothing to do with me. There have been and are others who I’ve turned to and who couldn’t help. There always will be. I always keep looking because eventually I’ll find someone who can help.

All the Mrs. Masons in the world make a positive and lasting difference in others, a difference that I am privileged to be able to pay forward in any capacity through interning at this event.

By investing time and money and energy into me, all those who helped me complete college did not just fund me. They funded my future. The kindness and compassion shown to me throughout my life is something I plan to pass on. Just as others have invested in me in order for me to achieve my dreams, I will do the same—even if it just to encourage others to dream and believe with all their heart they can achieve it.