Education is a reliable way for students to break out of challenging situations and secure a stable future. Sometimes, though, the barriers they face are so formidable that even the most promising students can’t get around them. In these circumstances, young people are forced to make an impossible trade-off: step off the path to a financially stable career to generate income for the household now.

Recently, we met Durga, a stellar student in Visakhapatnam, India, who is enrolled in a two-year MBA program at NSRIT, a local institute of technology. She has achieved exemplary grades at every level: a 9.8 GPA at tenth grade, a CGPA of 8.17 at twelfth grade, and a CGPA of 7.63 during her completion of a Bachelor of Commerce degree. Durga is a true academic star, but the cost of this MBA program is a major obstacle to her continuing on her academic journey.

Durga has had to take out loans and self-fund at every step in her education. She lives with her mother, a single parent who makes ends meet by working at a nearby restaurant for low wages. Unfortunately, although Durga’s education is a priority, the cost of tuition represents more than two-thirds of her income and in unsustainable.

Durga’s MBA is in a high-demand field and could mean a future of financial stability for her and her mother, however her need to find ways to finance it puts that future of stability at great risk.

“Durga embodies so much of what our foundation is about,” said Brandon Sosa, CEO of the Barzilai Foundation. “She has pushed past barriers that are very real and unfortunately derail so many others. She has fought and continues to fight for a better future and with some support we can help her in her efforts to unleash her full potential.”

The Barzilai Foundation has provided Durga a scholarship that covers tuition, exam fees, books, and other academic supplies for the duration of her MBA program. Without needing to constantly find funding for her next course, Durga can remain focused on her future and the difference it will make in her life and her family’s welfare.