Hello, fans and followers! If you watched my recent YouTube video, you will see that I have been invited to attend two major vocal education events this summer:

1) The Voice Foundation's Annual Symposium and Gala, May 27th-31st in Philadelphia (https://voicefoundation.org/annual-symposium/)

and

2) The University of Utah Vocology Institute Summer Education Program (https://vocology.utah.edu/svi/)

I am currently rebuilding my online voice studio and my student load, so I am unable to afford the costs of attending either. My goal is to make a summer-long video blog for my YouTube channel to give everyone on the internet who watches it a real bird's-eye view into voice science and the interplay between being a teacher and the study of the topic. This is an opportunity of a lifetime, and I will get to work with researchers who are like heroes to me. The owner of the institution, Dr. Ingo Titze, is nearing his retirement, and it would be an incredible honor to get to study rigorously under him for a summer. I believe that he is the absolute best voice researcher in the world, and working with him will only improve my ability to be a more effective educator.

Here I have outlined all of the costs associated with the goal, attempting to be as conservative as possible with my estimations. The costs of the institution and the symposium are readily available on the above website, so as to cross-reference the validity of my estimations:

As you can see, this will be a costly thing to do. I will be able to teach from my laptop when I am away from home, so I will be able to pay my rent back home and whatnot, but I will not have the funds to extend beyond my living expenses at all.

If I do not reach the maximum goal, I will use whatever funds are donated to attend as much of the experience as possible. If I find ways to cut costs down from what I have estimated, I will do so. The summer institute is broken down into 3 blocks, and if I am not able to raise funding for all three blocks, I will only attend as much as I can afford.

Any leftover or remaining funds, if applicable, will be used to upgrade my current recording setup for my YouTube channel/teaching. I could use a new camera, as mine is very limited in its quality and scope, and I could also use a digital piano/keyboard, as I am currently using a phone app as a placeholder and it doesn't work very well. If there are still leftover funds after this point, I will use the remaining money to pay my rent/living expenses to take some of the strain off of having to cover those costs while I am away from home for the summer.

Thank you all SO much for supporting me, and any and every donation helps. I know that the economy is terrible right now, I'm feeling it too, so please only donate if you are truly able.