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Buragina, attending Fanshawe College, had planned to graduate in April and write a registration exam that would allow her to start working in May, but that’s now been bumped to September.

“This means that I may not be able to start working until the end of 2018, which is hard when I have to pay off $50,000 in loans,” she said.

Buragina’s course is a combination of lectures, clinical requirements and community placements. She’s had to cancel appointments with her clients at Western University because her instructors have to supervise and they’re on strike.

“My hope is that I can get back to school really soon because the lack of sleep and stress my classmates and I have been experiencing is almost worse than when we are in school,” she said.

Photo by Derek Ruttan/The London Free Press/Postmedia Network

Buragina isn’t alone.

Ontario has ordered its colleges to create a fund from unpaid wages and other strike savings to help students who may be experiencing financial hardship, but that’s small consolation for those squeezed now.

Take Zack Fulmer, a second-year law clerk student at Fanshawe. He quit his part-time sales job earlier this year, as his course workload piled up.

Now, he has no classes and his old job is no longer available

“At this point I have been scrambling to get a job, selling my personal belongings just to be able to make rent for the next couple months — that is assuming the next round of OSAP does come out in January, as scheduled,” said Fulmer, referring to his student loan.

Some of the hardest-hits students are from other counties, who pay higher fees than Canadians.