Jian Zheng
“Everybody knows that becoming a college student, you always need money to survive. If I only depend on myself [to raise money for school], it is going to be a hard time. But IDA makes an easy time for me”
When Jian Zheng started high school in 2002, he faced the same anxieties and unknowns as any new student, magnified by the fact that he and his family had just moved to DC from China a few weeks before, and he knew little English. Settling into an apartment with his parents in DC’s Chinatown after growing up in the FuJian province of China, Jian began his American educational experience at Bell Multicultural High School in Columbia Heights.
Four years later, Jian is making the leap to university student as a freshman at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Jian was able to pay for part of his first semester tuition and books and a laptop computer with his own savings which were matched at a rate of 3:1 by CAAB’s Individual Development Account (IDA) program.
Jian learned about education IDAs from the Urban Alliance Foundation. He began saving $50 per month while he worked as an intern for the World Bank—a placement made possible by the Urban Alliance Foundation’s High School Internship Program.
“College is expensive,” Jian said. “Everybody knows that becoming a college student, you always need money to survive. If I only depend on myself [to raise money for school], it is going to be a hard time. But IDA makes an easy time for me.”
Although he was only a high school student when he started saving, Jian had to think like an adult, making his own decisions about his future. His family had encouraged him to get a job right out of high school to support himself, but Jian felt his career prospects would be better if he earned a college degree. Because he is the first person in his family to attend college, Jian had to navigate the admissions and financial aid processes without his parents’ help. He did research on colleges, attended college fairs, and talked with his high school counselor about his options. He looked for schools that would offer him good financial aid packages and that offered degree programs in computer science, his chosen major. Jian also applied for and earned scholarships from the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) Foundation and the Asian American business community.
After less than two weeks living in a dorm and attending classes, Jian is already impressed by the diversity and freedom of college. “It’s exciting,” he said. “But there’s more pressure to do work.” He’s looking forward to improving his English and to learning more about computer science.
Jian admits that saving for college wasn’t easy, but that the IDA program encouraged him to keep saving, even in small amounts, and that he would see his money grow. He looks forward to earning more money for the rest of college by saving some of his earnings from his work-study program. CAAB’s education IDAs allow college students to continue contributing to their accounts and receiving matching funds (up to their maximum allowable amount) throughout college.
Ultimately Jian expects his investment in college to pay off. “I will [do] my best to give back to my community and improve my family’s life.” He is considering the possibility of returning to a job at the World Bank after college to help end world poverty. But right now, he’s just learning how to be a freshman.
