Meet Jacky, a CONNECT client

Jacky has been teaching for five years in the bilingual K-1 Sheltered English Immersion program at Blackstone Innovation School in the South End of Boston.

"I love my job, and I love my students," she says, looking around the classroom she calls the "Under the Sea Rainbow".

But over the past few years, her expenses began increasing. Between rising rent, student loans from her master’s in teaching from UMass Boston, and vet bills for her dog Mia, she ended up moving back in with her parents in Chelsea.

“It’s actually cheaper to pay monthly health insurance for Mia than to pay veterinarians out of pocket,” she says, remembering a schedule of expensive allergy shots and a $2,000 bill she once incurred for an emergency operation.

“Also,” she adds, gesturing to the colorful three-dimensional paper-cut-out jellyfish that hover over the round worktables in her spacious classroom at the Blackstone, “I need to fund my classroom!”

Like many teachers, Jacky uses her own money to give her students the best possible educational experience she can. Each worktable is under its own orange, yellow, or green jellyfish. There’s the writing table (under the pink jellyfish), and the Peace Corner by the window in the corner, shrouded by a white lacy curtain, where a hyper-active child can chill out on a cushion. All of these settings need to be replenished regularly with papers of many kinds and colors, and with materials for writing, drawing, painting, and assembling.

After meeting with CONNECT financial coach Edily Vasquez, Jacky began paying off her credit cards and put together a spreadsheet with tabs for all of her expenses – utilities, rent, food, clothing, entertainment, as well as transportation to work (she drives from Chelsea to the South End every day), Mia's healthcare, and her beloved Under the Sea Rainbow classroom.

“I’ve learned a lot,” she says, “and things are looking better. I’m happy to pay my parents $500 a month in the meantime—and I will always want to live near them; but I want my own place again.”