Help me get to Drama School in NYCx
Donation protected
Hey everyone!
My name is Christelle Belinga, I’m 19 from Hackney North East London. Around this time last year I surprisingly got accepted into an amazing Drama school in New York called the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. This is a school that i had been researching a year prior and reading about the Academy and their alumni’s and how much of an impact they have made within the industry just made me fall in love with the place.
Ever since I was 7 years old and I performed for the first time in the production of Annie with Hackney Shed, this is when my passion for the art began and I knew that performing and being an actor is something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I can not even begin to express my love for drama and performing, it triggers an emotion so overwhelming it's hard to describe. Everything about the whole process ignites a flame from within, from Getting the script for the first time to learning your lines, from rehearsals to performing its so enjoyable and uplifting and I know I’m probably babbling on and making no sense but as I mentioned before my its really hard to describe how much I want to do this for the rest of my life.
The moment I started to believe that I could genuinly achieve my dream was when I was 15 and I was nominated by my secondary school drama teacher Mr Jackson (Mount Carmel) to join a project ran by Islington Community Theatre called 15 which was a play starring fifteen 15 year olds showing what its like to be 15, since then I have been involved in a numerous amount of productions with them and even helped mentor younger members of the comapny. Islington Community Theatre (ICT) is a youth theatre company ran by an AMAZINGGGG!!Set of people (Yess Ned, Adam, Suzie and the rest of you lovely people :)), These guys have opened so many doors for me and all of the kids they cater for within the company not just physically by giving us performance opportunities but also mentally by teaching us skills to do with directing, writing and theatre making as a whole.
Being apart of this company for the past 3 years has fuled my passion for acting even more. I have learnt so much from the directors about myself and about the art and without them I honestly dont know where I would be today.
I’m a single child to my mother born and raised in London, It’s always been me and her. When I was a baby my dad wasn't around he left the UK and went back to africa while my mum decided to stay here alone with me and study so she could provide for me and lead me to a better future to what I would’ve had if she also returned to africa, she had no family and she didn't speak that much english, In order to succeed she made the brave decision to put me in temporary foster care in Ashford Kent, It was hard for her to look after an 8 month old baby whilst trying to get a medical degree so she sacrificed raising me, missing my first day at school, first words and all the other milestones I must of made all in order for her to get a secure job to provide for me. I came back to live with my mum when I was 7 and even then she was still working her butt off, she became a fully qualified midwife and started working long days and through the nights leaving me with childminders and family friends.
Throughout my whole life my mum has been working so hard to ensure I get the opportunities for a bright future I never knew that these past 10 years she has been putting money into a savings account under my name, she managed to save up £11,000, she only told me this once I told her about the Academy and their prices. University in the US is a lot more expensive then it is in the UK, the academies tuition fee is $29,900 a year and their academy housing is $15,525 for the school year adding up to $45,425, the academy was able to reward me with $12,000 in scholarships leaving me with $33,425 which is £20,771.84 to pay.
After speaking with my mum about this she said she was willing to make this happen and she would do anything to make sure that I was able to go so she and myself reached out to my dad and explained to him the prices and the payment plan that we had agreed on and he said that he was going to help my mum, they agreed to split the price between them and pay for everything. I was so happy and overjoyed that he was going to step in because i had never received anything from him throughout my whole life, I did resent him a little for it but I thought that now is the time that counts by helping me and my mum he would make up for never being around but when it was crunch time he let us down big time, the first payment of £10,600 was due september the 1st and two weeks previously me and my mum were continuously calling him and emailing him asking him how he was planning on transferring the money and asking him whether he was still going to help out but we received no reply, the deadline came and my mum paid the full amount eating up all the savings, 3 days later my dad finally emailed back saying that because he went on holiday and he spent a lot of money there so he was unable to provide the funds. This was extremely hurtful for me and my mum, my mum because now she had to figure out how to raise the rest of money in a short time because the next payment of £5000 was due December 1st and the last payment of £5000 due January 15th, and myself because I have never asked my dad for anything throughout my whole life nor did he provide me with anything and this didn't bother me but when I needed him and for him to make promises to me for a whole year and then let me down at the last hurdle, it hurt so much, I never cry infront of anyone and I just broke down in tears in front of my mum.
That disappointment lead me to make a decision to defer my placement of the course to the winter term January 2015, I was originally supposed to go September 2014 but I didn't want to leave my mum with the pressure of raising that amount of money in a short space of time, by deferring my mum now has until April 2015 to raise the next £10,000 and 6 months is a lot longer than 3 months.
I want this SOOOOO bad, I want to be the best that I can be, I want to learn, grow and develop skills that I haven't heard of yet and overall I want to make my mum, she has been through and sacrificed so much for me and I just want to pay her back for all she has done for me and for me to do that through something that I love will just be a dream come true. I want to go to this academy and learn the skills they are going to teach me and cherish them, thrive in them and teach them to others so I can inspire them to chase their dreams.
The total amount of £5000 that I have asked for will contribute to a bit of everything that I need for this course, parts of it will help my mum with the remaining tuition fee, part of it will cover my health insurance in the US over the next year, part will cover the equipment that I need like my rehearsal kit, dancing shoes, scripts and textbooks and finally part will be added to my personal savings for my living expenses like travel and food.
I will be grateful for any amount that you see fit to donate weather it be £1 or £100, I am simply grateful that you gave up a few minutes of your time to even look at this page and read my story. I promise that I will work extremely hard to make my dream happen and to ensure that the money you have donated will not go to waste.
Thank you for your time
Christelle Belinga :)
x
P.S. Everyone of you will get a mention in my acceptance speech when I win an Oscar in 5 years ;) #AimingHigh
x
My name is Christelle Belinga, I’m 19 from Hackney North East London. Around this time last year I surprisingly got accepted into an amazing Drama school in New York called the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. This is a school that i had been researching a year prior and reading about the Academy and their alumni’s and how much of an impact they have made within the industry just made me fall in love with the place.
Ever since I was 7 years old and I performed for the first time in the production of Annie with Hackney Shed, this is when my passion for the art began and I knew that performing and being an actor is something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I can not even begin to express my love for drama and performing, it triggers an emotion so overwhelming it's hard to describe. Everything about the whole process ignites a flame from within, from Getting the script for the first time to learning your lines, from rehearsals to performing its so enjoyable and uplifting and I know I’m probably babbling on and making no sense but as I mentioned before my its really hard to describe how much I want to do this for the rest of my life.
The moment I started to believe that I could genuinly achieve my dream was when I was 15 and I was nominated by my secondary school drama teacher Mr Jackson (Mount Carmel) to join a project ran by Islington Community Theatre called 15 which was a play starring fifteen 15 year olds showing what its like to be 15, since then I have been involved in a numerous amount of productions with them and even helped mentor younger members of the comapny. Islington Community Theatre (ICT) is a youth theatre company ran by an AMAZINGGGG!!Set of people (Yess Ned, Adam, Suzie and the rest of you lovely people :)), These guys have opened so many doors for me and all of the kids they cater for within the company not just physically by giving us performance opportunities but also mentally by teaching us skills to do with directing, writing and theatre making as a whole.
Being apart of this company for the past 3 years has fuled my passion for acting even more. I have learnt so much from the directors about myself and about the art and without them I honestly dont know where I would be today.
I’m a single child to my mother born and raised in London, It’s always been me and her. When I was a baby my dad wasn't around he left the UK and went back to africa while my mum decided to stay here alone with me and study so she could provide for me and lead me to a better future to what I would’ve had if she also returned to africa, she had no family and she didn't speak that much english, In order to succeed she made the brave decision to put me in temporary foster care in Ashford Kent, It was hard for her to look after an 8 month old baby whilst trying to get a medical degree so she sacrificed raising me, missing my first day at school, first words and all the other milestones I must of made all in order for her to get a secure job to provide for me. I came back to live with my mum when I was 7 and even then she was still working her butt off, she became a fully qualified midwife and started working long days and through the nights leaving me with childminders and family friends.
Throughout my whole life my mum has been working so hard to ensure I get the opportunities for a bright future I never knew that these past 10 years she has been putting money into a savings account under my name, she managed to save up £11,000, she only told me this once I told her about the Academy and their prices. University in the US is a lot more expensive then it is in the UK, the academies tuition fee is $29,900 a year and their academy housing is $15,525 for the school year adding up to $45,425, the academy was able to reward me with $12,000 in scholarships leaving me with $33,425 which is £20,771.84 to pay.
After speaking with my mum about this she said she was willing to make this happen and she would do anything to make sure that I was able to go so she and myself reached out to my dad and explained to him the prices and the payment plan that we had agreed on and he said that he was going to help my mum, they agreed to split the price between them and pay for everything. I was so happy and overjoyed that he was going to step in because i had never received anything from him throughout my whole life, I did resent him a little for it but I thought that now is the time that counts by helping me and my mum he would make up for never being around but when it was crunch time he let us down big time, the first payment of £10,600 was due september the 1st and two weeks previously me and my mum were continuously calling him and emailing him asking him how he was planning on transferring the money and asking him whether he was still going to help out but we received no reply, the deadline came and my mum paid the full amount eating up all the savings, 3 days later my dad finally emailed back saying that because he went on holiday and he spent a lot of money there so he was unable to provide the funds. This was extremely hurtful for me and my mum, my mum because now she had to figure out how to raise the rest of money in a short time because the next payment of £5000 was due December 1st and the last payment of £5000 due January 15th, and myself because I have never asked my dad for anything throughout my whole life nor did he provide me with anything and this didn't bother me but when I needed him and for him to make promises to me for a whole year and then let me down at the last hurdle, it hurt so much, I never cry infront of anyone and I just broke down in tears in front of my mum.
That disappointment lead me to make a decision to defer my placement of the course to the winter term January 2015, I was originally supposed to go September 2014 but I didn't want to leave my mum with the pressure of raising that amount of money in a short space of time, by deferring my mum now has until April 2015 to raise the next £10,000 and 6 months is a lot longer than 3 months.
I want this SOOOOO bad, I want to be the best that I can be, I want to learn, grow and develop skills that I haven't heard of yet and overall I want to make my mum, she has been through and sacrificed so much for me and I just want to pay her back for all she has done for me and for me to do that through something that I love will just be a dream come true. I want to go to this academy and learn the skills they are going to teach me and cherish them, thrive in them and teach them to others so I can inspire them to chase their dreams.
The total amount of £5000 that I have asked for will contribute to a bit of everything that I need for this course, parts of it will help my mum with the remaining tuition fee, part of it will cover my health insurance in the US over the next year, part will cover the equipment that I need like my rehearsal kit, dancing shoes, scripts and textbooks and finally part will be added to my personal savings for my living expenses like travel and food.
I will be grateful for any amount that you see fit to donate weather it be £1 or £100, I am simply grateful that you gave up a few minutes of your time to even look at this page and read my story. I promise that I will work extremely hard to make my dream happen and to ensure that the money you have donated will not go to waste.
Thank you for your time
Christelle Belinga :)
x
P.S. Everyone of you will get a mention in my acceptance speech when I win an Oscar in 5 years ;) #AimingHigh
x
Organizer
Christelle Belinga
Organizer
England
