Hundreds of strangers donate money to help Fresno State student pay tuition

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A Fresno State Student who lost one of her grants just a week before the new semester received some much-needed help unexpectedly.

Amanda Sanchez was at a Sacramento conference talking about her experience as a college student with financial struggles.

Sanchez needed $5,000 to pay for her fall semester tuition at Fresno State.

After she told author Alex Banayan about the money troubles, he motivated the crowd to pitch in and help out Sanchez with her college tuition for this semester.

The Reedley native was attending the COCA Conference when hundreds of people donated money to her directly through Venmo.

Sanchez works at Dutch Bros. in northwest Fresno where several of co-workers also contributed to the several thousand dollars to help her pay for this semester.

"Even after the fact that it did happen, I was very overwhelmed. I went off to the side with my own Fresno family, Dutch Bros family, and I was still kind of crying to myself," said Sanchez.

She started her junior year at Fresno State on Wednesday.

She is a Business Marketing major and hopes to move up the ranks at Dutch Bros. as an event coordinator.

Sanchez says she also plans to pay it forward in the future when she can help out a struggling college student with their finances.