Hello,

I am Adebola Daramola, an international student from Nigeria and a 3rd-year Ph.D. Public Policy Student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Maryland, with Prof. Tim Gindling as my graduate advisor. I have a research interest in financial technology (FinTech), financial inclusion, and regulatory policy.

I am asking for your financial support toward defraying my outstanding tuition of $12,337.76 for fall 2020.

This fall 2020 academic term has been a fierce struggle for me on all fronts. 

My financial obligations to UMBC are rising, and it would affect my academic progress in the Ph.D. program. My inability to pay the fall 2020 outstanding bill will stall me from registering for Spring 2021. 

It will be useful to know I am scheduled to write my Ph.D. comprehensive exams in Spring 2021. I have completed all my core Ph.D. Public Policy courses necessary to write my Ph.D. comprehensive exams in Spring 2021 and then proceed to submit my Ph.D. dissertation proposal. I would appreciate your support of my dream to earn a Ph.D. in Public Policy degree. 

My PhD Story

In the first two years of my Ph.D. study, I had a graduate assistantship contract with UMBC’s Maryland Institute for Policy, Analysis, and Research (MIPAR), where I was assigned to Maryland Dept. of Health Laboratories Administration (MDH). The graduate assistantship (GA) was expected to last the entire five years of my Ph.D. (From August 2018 to May 2023) at a cost to the State of Maryland, while in return I work with MDH. Unfortunately, for reasons outside my control, the State of Maryland’s contract with UMBC’s Maryland Institute for Policy, Analysis, and Research (MIPAR) abruptly came to an end, and in turn, my contract with MIPAR ended in June 2020. 

This situation was no fault of mine.  While in MDH, I had high-performance ratings consistently.

So far in my Ph.D. study, I have a record of successes, and the potential to excel much more in the Ph.D. Public Policy program. 

In November 2019, I won UMBC’s Graduate Student Association (GSA) Professional Development Grant. The grant allowed me to attend and led the 2019 APPAM Communities session on FinTech for Financial Inclusion (F4F) in Colorado, Denver.  Prior to COVID -19 pandemic, I received acceptance notice of my paper submission for varied conferences in the year 2020, see details below:

• Daramola, A. (2020a). Evaluating Financial Regulators’ Capability in Cybersecurity: A Study of Selected Developing Countries. Submission Accepted for the Organizational Behavior Track, Eastern Academy of Management (EAM) Conference 2020. 
• Daramola, A. (2020b). Regulatory Entrepreneurship: A Fintech’s Experience in the Policymaking Process. Submission Accepted for the APPAM 2020 Regional Student Conferences.
• Daramola, A. (2019a). Encouraging Diversity and Inclusion in Financial Technology through Entrepreneurial Education. Submission Accepted for the VentureWell OPEN 2020 conference 

Also, I presented a paper on May 27, 2020, as part of APPAM Student Research Online Seminars.

• Daramola, A. (2020, May 27). Regulatory Entrepreneurship: A Fintech’s Experience in the Policymaking Process. 

More on the situation

Amid all these situations, I suffered housing insecurity and lost my health insurance.   But for family and friends that support me financially and emotionally, I have not been successful at getting another GA role due to the limited position and competition on Campus as a result of COVID-19 since June 2020.

As part of efforts to raise the much-needed fund, UMBC’s International Education Services (IES) nominated me for the Institute of International Education (IIE) - Western Union Foundation COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund. Sadly, I was not awarded the scholarship.

Also, I have approached student loan lenders with no success so far.

I will appreciate your kind contribution to support me at this dire moment. 

Your financial support will save me from dropping out from the Ph.D. program which I look forward to completing by May 2023, and other attendant consequences like removal by United States immigration if I do not register for the Spring 2021 class.

Thank you for your generosity towards me.