Hello! My name is Taylor Marie Welch. I am a theatre student entering my senior year (yay!) at Virginia Commonwealth University. For as long as I could remember, I have been curious about the world, interested in its people, and passionate about learning their stories. I have met many wonderful people in my life, and am very grateful for those experiences. The one thing I have always wanted to do, however, is travel abroad. I have never had the opportunity to do so until now(yay again!).

This summer, I will be studying abroad in Granada, Spain through an ISA/WorldStrides program. My program is from June 27–July 30, and takes place in Granada in the south of Spain. I will be taking an Intensive Spanish Language course at the Universidad de Granada, which was founded in 1531 and is one of the oldest and largest universities in Spain. I took Spanish for 7 growing years up, and see it as a beautiful language with a rich history. As a theatre artist, I know how important language is to preserving culture, art, and history, and I want to experience a small piece of that evolution during my trip. I also want to experience art and culture that isn’t in my dominant language, and experience what it means to be outside out of my comfort zone. Only when we are uncomfortable can we grow and discover things about ourselves.

This will be my first trip abroad, and I am humbly asking for your help to make this dream a reality. The purpose of this fundraiser is to raise enough funds to cover the remaining cost of tuition, as well as the cost of associated travel expenses such as an international SIM card, phone plan, travel bags, and food while traveling. I’ve worked incredibly hard to get to this point, and when the initial goal is reached, all additional funds will go towards the aforementioned categories, as well as toward my rent while I am abroad.

For transparency purposes, I will outline the entire cost of my program, what I have paid thus far, as well as the cost after receiving partial funding from my university.

Full Cost of Tuition: $5,550

Remaining Balance: $4439

Grant from School: $1849

Initial Goal: $2590- This remaining amount covers the rest of tutition.

Right now, the proposed payment deadline is June 10th, but there is potential for this to be pushed back. I will update with more information as I have it.

This trip is a dream come true for me! Any amount that you are able to contribute is appreciated. For those who cannot donate, please feel free to simply share it. Support comes in more ways than one and I have been thankful enough to be cared for and supported in so many ways, especially throughout the last year. Thank you:)