A GoFundMe page set up to help her continue her education meets its goal

By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news

When Southern Oregon University student Heather Yandell crosses the graduation stage in June, she’ll do so having overcome living homeless amid a wildfire, a near flood of her campsite, a pandemic, a near collision with a semi and countless other obstacles while pursuing her degree.

During six of the seven years she has been pursuing higher education in Southern Oregon, she and her husband, Chris Yandell, have been living in a tent off the Bear Creek Greenway in Medford. (See note at end of article for an update on their living situation.) Heather finished her graduation requirements on Wednesday, March 29, and will officially receive her Bachelor of Science degree in Emerging Media and Digital Arts from SOU in June.

“Most people in my situation would’ve dropped out years ago,” Heather told Ashland.news.

“I got a second chance in life,” Heather added later in the interview. “I want to make it count.”

She said she doesn’t like asking for “charity” but takes satisfaction in doing things herself.

“But I do need a little help,” she said.

The 50-year-old SOU graduate is now raising money to help clear a pathway to continue her education in the SOU Masters of Business Administration (MBA) program this summer. She had wanted to start on Monday, April 3, but lacks the funds to take on student loans for the roughly $19,000 master’s program. An amount of $2,085 — what it would take to pay off her credit debt — stands between her and entering the MBA program at SOU. Most likely, she’ll begin in June, but she needs to get that done before she can start.

Between living in a tent since COVID-19 started, sleeping in her car at one point, and on a roof in Medford for a period of time, it’s been a rough few years.

Up until early March, the pair lived at a site off the Bear Creek Greenway during and after the Almeda Fire, which ravaged many of the trees and foliage on the Greenway, as well as making ashes of thousands of brick and mortar homes, mostly in Talent and Phoenix. 

At one point, they also made it through a flood of their campsite by Bear Creek, when rising water came within about a foot and a half from their tent. 

“The water got about 2 feet from us,” she said.

On another occasion, the driver of a semi crashed not far from the tent, buffered only by some briar patches. The semi came within 50 feet of her and Chris’ tent, Heather shared with Ashland.news in text messages following the interview. It stopped about 10 feet above and another 30 feet or so back from the edge of the bank where the pair lived at the time.

“Way too close for comfort,” she said. 

A tree fell in the process, and she said it was about a foot from the tent.

“Fortunately it fell at an angle to the right, missing us,” Heather said. “It would have crushed Chris.”

“The tree fell about a week before I graduated from (Rogue Community College) in June 2021,” Heather said.

Heather noted that when she uses the term “camping,” it’s a little different than what some are probably envisioning and less primitive than some out there. The tent is large enough that she has a desk to do her homework, and the campsite has multiple tarps to keep the rain and snow out. The couple also has a generator and has had a propane heater in the past. They cook inside the tent but don’t make campfires. 

“We were in the same spot for three years,” Heather said. “That provided me the security and stability to do what I was doing.”

That was until about three weeks ago, when she said Medford police evicted them. 

“After all these years, they went and displaced us,” Heather said, noting it turned out the spot they were on was on private property. Heather said nobody had any idea they were there, providing a sense of safety and privacy. 

“We were very fortunate to have that spot,” Heather said. “It allowed me to finish up at RCC and to do the last two years here at SOU. And we’d always said, ‘Well, you know, we just have to make it till graduation and it hit like two weeks beforehand.”

Heather said a Medford Police Department officer did provide assistance to help them relocate.

“The cop was really nice,” she said. “He didn’t want to do it, but it was private property. He personally helped me load … He let me drive (our) van up to our spot so that we could load it up right there.”

But the timing was a hardship for her and Chris. She was in class when it happened.

“I had to miss almost a week of school because they gave us three days (to move),” Heather said. “Knowing that, I still went in and did my two hours of class.”

Now situated about a mile from the previous site, it’s just one more thing the couple has had to navigate while trying to wrap up her bachelor’s degree.

“I’m trying desperately to get us out of this situation, but I can’t afford both (school) and rent,” she said.

“We don’t have the 3:1 ratio for income to get into housing and so we’re just in this gray area,” she added, referring to the guideline that a tenant’s total income should be three times what they pay in rent.

How did the couple end up living in a tent? That’s a long story, but she’s willing to share it.

This isn’t the first time Heather has pursued higher education.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy from the University of Oregon. 

Growing up on the Oregon Coast, she started attending U of O at age 16, graduating at 21.

“The plan back then was to go to law school, so I doubled up on English and philosophy, and then married my first husband, and then I got sick,” Heather said. 

By the time she was done with treatments, her student loans went into default.

It took two decades to get back on her feet.

In 2016, she’d finally gotten out of default on student loans, and decided to go for it a second time, this time with renewed purpose and drive. 

“When I was 16 (and a Freshman at U of O), I was doing it for my parents,” Heather added. “This time it was all for me. It was something I really wanted and it just felt like the universe was throwing every obstacle at me that they could.”

Life circumstances had led her to California, where eventually she started up online classes at RCC. 

“I hitchhiked up here from California with my dog to be here for school, no idea where I was going to be staying,” she said. “My husband joined me like a week or so later.”

At the time, they were dating and she had been attending Rogue Community College online in California. She told him that once up in Southern Oregon, they’d need to live in a tent in order to make it while she attended school, although at one point, she lived in her car while attending classes for a term at RCC.

“I promised my husband adventure,” she said, noting that has certainly been the outcome.

But it certainly hasn’t always felt like a fun adventure.

She said a past eviction has made it nearly impossible for her to rent a place with four walls. 

The couple has also stayed at homeless shelters in Medford and Ashland for several months. They were married while at one shelter. But Heather said she found it hard to stay in the same area and to find a space where she could do her homework. Curfew times also would keep her from being able to stay up late to finish work for school.

Chris, 38, collects disability and has mental health issues, so having roommates wouldn’t be a possibility, Heather said.

At RCC, Heather studied web development, then made the switch to graphic design, earning an Associates in Graphic Design in 2021, and started pursuing a second Bachelor’s Degree in EMDA.

“Because I’m post-baccalaureate, all of my pre-reqs were done,” she said. “So all I had to do was design classes for the last two years.”

She said at times she’s felt like giving up on whether she can get help from some agencies.

“I’ve learned over the years, if I don’t advocate for myself, no one will,” Heather said. 

But she also knows she’s been helped by those at SOU, including getting food from the university’s food pantry when necessary and showering at the “Rec” Center last year. 

“They gave me my self-confidence back, I guess,” Heather said. “The people have just been quite wonderful here.”

She said some of her professors who were aware of her situation allowed her to attend class online when necessary.

“It’s a pretty big deal for me to get to Ashland,” Heather said. “It’s about a mile and a half walk just to get to the bus station. I have a car, but I can’t afford to drive it back and forth to Ashland.”

She parks the couples’ van at a storage unit to keep it safe and available for use when needed.

Heather said a family friend, who only wants to only go by her first name, Susan, has helped her significantly, with her husband’s support. Susan lets her and Chris do laundry at her home in Medford, where Heather’s 19-year-old daughter is also currently staying. 

“She makes sure we don’t freeze and she makes sure we don’t starve,” Heather said.

“I just get so tired of asking for people’s help,” Heather said, fighting back tears. “(The van) was broken down for almost a year and Susan was talking to a substitute teacher one day and it was like the woman’s only time subbing there and they somewhere ended up on the topic of me, and her husband owns a car lot in Grants Pass. They ended up fixing my van for nothing.”

“And they did that just like three or four weeks ago,” Heather said in mid-March. “I never saw that one coming.” 

Susan said she and her husband are happy to help Heather, but Susan doesn’t take credit for the fixed van.

“That’s a God thing, you know?” Susan said. “I had been praying that somehow the Lord would working something out for her.”

Susan knew Heather needed the van to keep going.

“We would’ve lost everything in the (law enforcement) sweep if we didn’t have that van,” Heather said.

Heather has also stayed at Susan’s home in the past, where she has also regularly visited her daughter and played an active role in her life. Susan also helped her evacuate when her campsite almost flooded.

“She’s tenacious,” Susan said. “She’s had to be like a survivalist, even in bad situations.” 

Susan and her husband continue to help Heather and Chris, providing a place where they can do laundry, as well as giving them rides when needed.

“She’s had to push herself through circumstances that were just unimaginable,” Susan said.

And things still haven’t been easy for Heather as she’s navigated having to relocate while she finishes up her undergraduate degree.

“Someone stole our heater during the course of our move and so we froze for the last two weeks,” Heather said.

“I just got a new one from Amazon,” she added.

Heather and Chris have a generator due to some financial aid money that’s helped make it possible to graduate.

Because she is a post-baccalaureate student, Heather said she was unable to get scholarships.

That makes the amount seem somewhat “insurmountable,” she said of the cost.

Non-traditional student gives higher ed the ‘old college try’ with youthful attitude

With aqua blue-dyed hair and pigtails, most wouldn’t guess Heather’s age.

Despite facing many hardships in both her personal and professional life, she carries herself with a youthful optimism, a unique characteristic for all she has experienced in life. 

“This is so people don’t know I haven’t washed my hair in a minute,” she admitted, of her hair color. “Little tricks of the trade.”

A self-described “non-traditional” student, many of Heather’s classmates are more near her daughter’s age.

But her confidence is growing and she says it comes from her accomplishments in school and her hope for a better future with her newfound education.  

When asked how she feels like she did on her last EMDA final, “Rendering and Digital Design (EMDA 440) she said with confidence, “I nailed it.”

Heather admits she just got comfortable and had been starting to meet new friends as she is getting ready to graduate. Now she’s looking ahead to what she hopes is a road that leads her off the streets.

“It’s a really cutthroat industry and I’m trying to really hedge my bets, which is why grad school,” Heather added. 

She was advised by professors that an MBA paired with the EMDA degree will bode well for her in her future goals. She’ll be pursuing an emphasis in marketing with her MBA, though she hasn’t decided just yet what she wants to do.

Heather has maintained high marks for the past four years, stating on her GoFundMe page that she has a 3.9 GPA while at SOU. 

SOU has also been a place where she’s found camaraderie with faculty and classmates, amid her trying circumstances. Heather celebrated her milestone 50th birthday in class on Oct. 21 last fall. She said her professor played a video of the song during her senior capstone class to celebrate.

“My professor played the top song of the year from 1972, which was ‘My Ding-a-ling,’ by Chuck Berry,” Yandell told Ashland.news.

That professor was Robert “Bobby” Arellano, professor of Emerging Media Digital Arts and Founding Director of EMDA. Arellano remembers that Heather was early for class, as per usual, so it didn’t disrupt class time to play the video.

“For the better part of two or three academic quarters, I wasn’t aware that Heather was doing everything she was doing without a house,” Arellano told Ashland.news. “And I’m still in awe.”

He was also in shock of all she accomplished despite her living situation.

“I might’ve had a hypothetical idea of what it would be like for a student who is unhoused at SOU and I remember her answer gave me a sense of just how much more complex it was than I imagined, and just how much more committed she had to be,” Arellano said.

That commitment looked like showing up well before class started, even during inclement weather.

“I would find her waiting outside the classroom for me to open it up at 8 a.m. or 8:10 (when it started at 8:30),” Arellano said.

Heather’s professors said she would take the bus to SOU even on the coldest of days, including during the snow that blanketed the Rogue Valley this winter.

“You see her passion and creativity and for problem-solving shine through with almost every opportunity she gets to put her design skills to work,” he said.

One of those projects that Arellano said showcases her talents is a prototype she created for a Latinx Cultural heritage website. Arellano said she was instrumental in the research, collaboration and prototyping of the design work.

“If there was anyone I would want to see profiled in a series on graduating college, it’s Heather,” Arellano said.

Arellano is proud to say that her wide skill set, which includes an associate degree in graphic design from Rogue Community College, will serve her well when she graduates and starts the MBA program.

Heather listed desktop publishing, design, branding, web and application design, among skills that she brings to the table.

“I’m going to be pursuing with the MBA an emphasis on marketing,” Heather said. “And with the MBA, that’s just going to open up so many doors.”

Arellano agrees.

“That master’s would qualify her in a lot of scenarios, community colleges, as well as four-year universities,” he said. “The most that she made out of her education, she could continue to use that momentum to inspire others, and I hope she does.”

Sam Hayes-Hicks, assistant professor of EMDA, who also has taught Heather the last couple years, sees even more wide-ranging value in it for Heather.

“Being able to think creatively and solve problems in a creative way sometimes I think can be more beneficial than somebody who is strictly logical and thinks outside the box,” Hayes-Hicks said. “That’s why I see a MBA really being helpful.”

Hayes-Hicks said as a former non-traditional student from a rural area in Oregon, he can also relate with the obstacles Heather and many students face who are older than the traditional student, who is usually between 18 and 23.

“Higher education is not equitable at all,” he said. “There are so many barriers to it. I didn’t have to worry about a roof over my head and I still had a lot of obstacles as an older learner.”

Hayes-Hicks hopes Heather takes her drive and applies it to whatever she wants to do next.

“I’m hoping that her excitement and her energy will help facilitate her in communicating with other design places out there, where she can land her dream job,” he said.

Heather isn’t sure what she wants to do next. Possibly freelance design, but she’s open to seeing where her degree takes her. She also admitted it’s difficult for her to dream too far in advance. She mostly just knows she doesn’t want to live in a tent.

“But I would like to say, (living) indoors at some point,” she said. What she does know is that she wants to hold a job that allows her, her husband, and their dogs the ability to live together somewhere that’s warm, dry and even mobile.

“What I envision is us getting a fifth wheel and being able to move around,” she said. “We don’t need it to be big, we just need it to be ours.

“Something COVID has taught me is, I can do this industry from anywhere,” she added.

Even in a tarp-covered tent in the pouring, cold rain.

A reporter and photographer visited Heather and Chris at their tent a day after a recent rainstorm, where she introduced them to dogs CeCe, 3, a female Chiweenie; and Link, 11, a male Shih Tzu/Maltese mix.

“We call it urban camping,” Heather said, giving a tour of the tarped area. “It’s not because I like to camp.”

Heather knows that obtaining her bachelor’s at SOU and eventually her master’s degree will change life for the better for the couple, potentially helping them get out of a tent for good.

“Once this is behind us, I will never be camping again,” she said.

Arellano sees her determination paying off in both the short term and the long-term.

“When folks ask or maybe even call me for an interview reference, I can say with 100% conviction that she’s got the right stuff,” Arellano said.

“Bless all our students who reach the finish line, but if you started with the kind of challenges that Heather had and you still excelled, and were one of the top people in your class, then all the more (it) demonstrates your dedication and your excellence, to have started from further behind.”

Heather has some advice, too, for students facing similar obstacles.

“Never give up — no matter what,” she said, “because I’m not unique. If I can do it, anybody can do this.”

For students who are facing food insecurity, housing, mental, financial or transportation issues, SOU Dean of Students Carrie Vath and her office provides multiple resources to provide help. Go online to learn more at dos.sou.edu/basic-needs-resources/.

To learn more about how to help Heather directly, go online to her GoFundMe site (click here). Her goal is set at $2,085; as of April 1, $45 had been pledged.

April 2 update: About 24 hours after her story was shared on Ashland.news, and 22 donations later, including an anonymous $1,060 donation, she met her fundraising goal.

“My heartfelt thanks goes out to everyone who participated in this fundraiser because it rekindled my faith in humanity at a crucial point,” she told Ashland.news Sunday night, via text message. She will start the MBA program June 19.

April 4 update: Four days after publication of this story, more than 40 donations have come in, totaling more than $4,000, far surpassing Heather Yandell’s $2,085 goal. In addition, thanks to an offer by a individual to pay rent for her until she earns her MBA, she is moving out of a tent and off the streets after six years there, in time to receive her bachelor’s degree.

Questions, comments, story tips? Reach out to Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at hollyd@ashland.news.

April 2 update: Age of Heather Yandell’s daughter and update on fundraising campaign added.

Related story: Heather’s homecoming: SOU student who was homeless during years of undergrad studies finally has a roof over her head, thanks to an anonymous benefactor (July 21, 2023)