When Alexis Da Ponte was accepted to her desired program at York University — a Bachelor of Fine Arts concurrent with a Bachelor of Education — she was thrilled to begin a new chapter of her life this fall.
“I am the first to go to university… Both my parents after high school, went straight to working. So I’ll be the first to kind of experience it,” said the 17-year-old who recently graduated from high school.
But the day after her prom, and the day before her graduation, she received a letter saying she was not eligible for funding from the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP)..
Da Ponte, who lives with her parents and grandmother in an apartment in Toronto’s west end, says her family lives paycheque-to-paycheque and although they’ve been working to save, they’re unable to contribute substantially to her schooling.
“My parents both barely make enough to kind…
