March 4 was a sunny day, a blessing for Meredith Watson – her arthritis was not acting up that day, allowing her to march to Cupertino City Hall with fellow De Anza College students.

Watson was, as she puts it, “pretty jacked up” after a car accident in which she suffered severe whiplash, some herniated disks and damage to her sciatic nerve, causing pain from her back to her ankles. She was then diagnosed with arthritis in her neck and back, which flares up whenever the weather is bad. “It’s like a fire in your bones,” Watson says.

Although her accident rendered her unable to stand for long periods of time, Watson is now seeking multiple degrees in psychology, with the goal of becoming a school psychiatrist. Prior to her injury, she worked as a chef in multiple restaurants.

“I was good at it, too,” she says, as she was once the youngest headline cook in her workplace.

She marched to City Hall because she is struggling to make ends meet due to her amassed medical fees, and her inability to take even a low paying job in service because it would require long hours on her feet.

“I have a lot of school ahead of me, and I’m already broke,” she says. With fee increases, it’s unlikely she would reach her goal of a Ph.D. in psychology.

Beyond her interest in working on high school campuses, Watson hopes to take