When the provincial government announced severe cuts to the Ontario Student Assistance Program earlier this year, Ayesha Khurram was at a loss of how to pay her tuition and rent for the upcoming semester.

Khurram is entering second year in the accounting and financial management program at the University of Waterloo. As the daughter of two immigrant parents working low-wage jobs in Mississauga and with her mom also struggling from a chronic kidney disease, Khurram could not turn to her family for financial help.

Her OSAP isn’t even enough to pay tuition.

When she posted about her struggles online, one of her friends suggested creating a PayPal account in the event people wanted to help her out and donate money.

She created the account. A couple of hours later, she received an email notifying her that singer-songwriter Taylor Swift had sent her $6,386.47 to pay for her tuition. “Ayesha, get your learn on girl!” the message read. “I love you! Taylor.”

When Khurram saw the message on her phone, she freaked out. She had just finished baking Taylor Swift’s chai cookie recipe and Swift had been liking her social media posts about them.

“My parents actually cried when I told them the Taylor news because they couldn’t believe it,” she said. “It’s like a guardian angel is watching or something.”

Swift’s representatives could not be immediately reached for comment.

Khurram has been a big fan of Swift since 2009. “(Taylor Swift has) been liking my posts since 2015 and I used to live in Pakistan then, so I really had no hope of meeting her, never even dreamed about it,” she said.

However, she got the opportunity after immigrating to Canada. She saw the artist in Toronto when Swift was in town for the Reputation Stadium Tour in August 2018. Swift invited the superfan backstage at the Rogers Centre to meet her in person.

This is not the first time the celebrity singer-songwriter has given money to her superfans for post-secondary education purposes. In 2015, she sent Rebekah Bortniker a check for $1,989 in order to pay off her student loans in the United States, according to USA Today.

Swift’s next album, Lover, will be released on Aug. 23.

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Ilya Bañares is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @ilyaoverseas

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