Source: Sunday Times, The, Nov 23, 2008
Section: Overseas news, pg. 24 - News
Family A cache of letters reveals the influences that helped shape the young Obama
Christine Finn in Honolulu and Sarah Baxter report
(excerpt)
".....The three volumes of [Stanley Ann] Dunham’s unpublished PhD on blacksmithing -a study of the economics of a village industry -have pride of place in her office. Dewey has also kept her friend’s private correspondence, in which Dunham wrote affectionately of her children. “Maya hates me to brag,” one letter reads, “but I am forced to mention that she made high honours this term.” It goes on to describe how “Barry is working in New York this year, saving his pennies so he can travel”.
Her son’s job, according to Dunham, was to write reports for a consultancy on social, economic and political conditions in the Third World. In those days Obama was a young radical. “He calls it ‘working for the enemy’ because some of the reports are written for commercial firms that want to invest in those countries,” Dunham wrote. “He seems to be learning a lot about the realities of international finance and politics ... that information will stand him in good stead for the future.”
(snip) "...“The major reason for the delay in my return to Hawaii (was) the need to work to put my son through college,” she wrote. “I am happy to say that he graduated from Columbia (University) in June, so that I am free to continue my own studies.”
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Found this on a ProQuest Search Is this the first we have read regarding who paid his college tuition?
There was an NYT article with an interview of Jr after he was named President of the Harvard Law Review in which he said he managed to pay off his student loans with his first two jobs he had after graduating from Columbia. As you may notice his salary at the time was first year $15,000/yr and the second year it was less than $10,000/yr. It’s difficult to tell who is telling the truth if either Jr or Ann are, since both lie a lot!
His first year at Oxy he was on a full scholarship but I do not know if that went into the second year with his drugging and partying. I cannot see paying off student loans for a year at Oxy and two years at Columbia on the salary he was making.