In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, Tomas Albergo writes:
Are there any significant scholarships for disabled graduate students? I kind of fell apart over the last year because of my neuropathic pain (in my dominant arm and hand, sustained from a surgical error 12+ years ago) and am concerned I’m eventually going to need to take medical leave. But I can’t really afford to do that (re insurance) given my medical situation. I’m likely going to have a serious operation in the next few weeks to fix or remove a broken implanted spinal cord stimulator. Ideally I want to stay in school so that I can catch up on things and have the good insurance I’m currently lucky to have through Pitt. If my situation doesn’t improve, I doubt I’ll be able to catch up adequately once my teaching responsibilities begin again.
This is an excellent question. Do any readers know of any scholarships like this or otherwise have any helpful tips?
Hi Tomas, perhaps you've already done this but I just want to encourage you to ask your department for help if you haven't done so. My department has been able to do things like (a) get special dispensation for a grad student dealing with a serious health issue to TA online, and, in a different case (b) round up enough funding (research accounts, etc.) to provide a grad student with the minimum required hours/salary for him to keep his health insurance/stay enrolled but effectively take a leave of absence. We are, as far as I know, far worse-resourced than Pitt. I hope your faculty would step up and try to help figure out a way to give you a break while keeping your insurance. Of course they might not be able to or might refuse, and I don't want to sound patronizing or assume you haven't already exhausted or given up on this option after trying. But just wanted to plug it. (And also hope that any faculty reading this will try to figure out how to help their grad students in these kinds of difficult situations!)
Posted by: anonymous associate professor | 05/18/2022 at 04:29 PM