Woman gets college tuition refund after withdrawing from classes amid cancer battle | 7 On Your Side
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Returning to school for a master's degree is no easy feat. According to the 2023 U.S. Census, only 14% of people have advanced degrees.
Karen Wallace has walked a path of helping others. She's been an advocate for the homeless, including getting them supportive housing.
"It's a way to get street homeless off the street, and give them an environment to again resume their lives," she said.
Wallace has always dreamed of opening her own assisted-living facility, and so two years ago she applied for her master's degree in public administration at John Jay College.
"I got the chance to get an opportunity for my M.P.A. I applied, I got in, I started my classes," Wallace said.
But just as the semester started, Wallace's life of helping suddenly turned into her needing help.
"But I had already got diagnosed with the breast cancer in November, and I just went on and started, because it started. I'm home, I'm online, it was easy," she said. "But then when we did the PET scan in January, and it came up with the Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, I just didn't know what to do."
Battling two forms of cancer, college took a back seat and Wallace withdrew from her courses.
"I start corresponding again with the bursar's office and these things like that, letting them know that I'm sick and that I'm unable to, you know, do the classes, continue the classes. And I did it within the time period of withdrawal," she said.
Less than a year later, Wallace's cancer was in remission, but the celebration stopped short when she checked her mailbox and found a bill for over $5,000.
The grad student ended up in collections, and after months of trying to get it erased, Wallace was left with few options.
"Wait, so you were going to pay even though you didn't go?" 7 On Your Side's Nina Pineda asked.
Wallace replied, "Yeah, because it was going to go on my credit report, what am I going to do? It made me want to cry, I was literally sick."
Even though Wallace beat cancer twice two years after her diagnosis, she still couldn't win the tuition battle with her college. So, 7 On Your Side contacted John Jay College on a Friday, and before classes started on Monday, Wallace got some great news.
"$5,915.20 of appreciation, Nina. All right, 7 on my side!" Wallace said with enthusiasm.
In a statement, a John Jay spokesperson said: "We hope that Ms. Wallace can now focus on restoring her health and we're grateful for her patience and grace as we worked to resolve the issue."
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