Hello. I am a 25 year old African American female. I had graduated from college back in December of 2011 and obtained a Bachelors of Science in General Biology. I want to use my degree to conduct research in the fields of breast cancer and lupus as I have performed that type of research while I was an undergraduate and it spoke to me as something I really want to do. My only problem is that they will not let me have it. I have a surcharge of $5000 left on my balance from the last semester I attended classes. The thing is, I had paid the surcharge for the spring semester which happened to be $3500. I was lucky enough to have gotten an internship in the summer and was able to pay my balance before the fall semester. But to my surprise, they charged me an additional surcharge in the middle of my fall 2011 semester. They let me walk and graduate, but they are keeping my degree until the additional $5000 is paid. I was unaware that I would be charged a second surcharge as it is not listed anywhere in the student handbook. I have exhausted all my resources trying to gain additional funds, ranging from retail, to food service, to help from family, but I do not have enough to survive and pay the school, especially not on minimum wage. I come from a very poor background. My father died when I was 20 and my mother is clinically disabled with 11 herniated discs and retired. I am exhausting credit cards just to stay ahead on rent and car insurance and I have recently in the last month just lost my job. I am actively looking for decent paying work and I thought I would give this a go and see if there were any kind people out there willing to help a would be scientist. I appreciate you reading this and God bless