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For doctoral candidate and single parent Konysha Wade, the financial struggle is daily.
More than half of her monthly earnings from her two on-campus jobs at UC Irvine goes toward renting her university apartment, where she lives with her 11-year-old son.
She brings home about $2,700 a month after taxes from working as an African American Studies instructor and a graduate student researcher — all while taking at least two classes toward her Culture and Theory doctoral degree and raising her son. She said their rent is more than $1,500 a month, which leaves just over $1,000 a month for all other expenses.
“It’s so, so tough,” Wade, 29, said. “We barely make it. We are trying to survive on limited savings. It’s about constant budgeting.”
