2020
 MDRT Foundation Recipient

Jordan Santo

AMOUNT: $7,500
SCHOOL: University of Michigan

When I was three years old, my father passed away suddenly in a tragic pedestrian accident. My family has faced many challenges since my father’s death in 2005. It hasn’t been easy for my mother to raise both me and my brother on her own. Since my father was the provider for the family, we were forced to move in with my grandparents and have relied greatly on their financial support. In addition, my mother was forced to go back to work and wasn’t able to stay home as raise us, as she and my father had planned.

At the time of my father’s death, he was 40-years-old, and my mother was 33-years-old. My father had a very small life insurance policy, which was used up quickly on daily expenses and health insurance premiums. If my father had adequate life insurance coverage, my family wouldn’t have been so stressed about money all the time, and my mother and grandparents wouldn’t have had to go back to work to help support me and my brother. In addition, my mother would have been able to stay in our home we had before my dad’s passing. My mother wouldn’t have had to worry about the financial future of herself, me and my brother. If my mother didn’t have to go back to work, she could have been home raising me, while I was young and missing my dad.

When I was young, I began auditioning for acting jobs, mainly commercials, so that I could save some money for going to college. In addition, as soon as I was in high school, I began tutoring peers in the subjects of math and science. These tutoring jobs allowed me to have money to use for myself and to help out with family expenses.

Although I have a 4.61 GPA and a 1490 SAT score, applying to college has been extremely difficult for me because I’m worried about the debt it will place me and my family in.

For me, getting into college isn’t completely joyful because of the financial burden. I know that the price of tuition will be a large deciding factor. I hope to attend a highly-ranked college in the Engineering discipline. I plan on majoring in Aerospace Engineering or Mechanical Engineering. I believe space travel in our solar system can become just like flights on our planet. I’m very interested in innovating space travel and making it commercial. I hope to design a passenger spacecraft that would allow passengers to travel outside of our planet in a very cost and time efficient way.

Not only has my father’s death affected me financially, I’ve also struggled with the loss of emotional support at various points in my life. I’ve struggled with the reality of not having a father to ask questions, share my feelings and ask for guidance. Although the emotional loss I feel is extremely difficult, the financial loss could have been avoided with adequate life insurance.

The Life Lessons Scholarship is made possible through individual donations and corporate sponsorships. Your financial support can make a world of difference for a young person struggling to afford a college education due to the loss of a parent or guardian.

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