Help Jorge Meet His Destiny at NYU Grad Film

Hi, I’m Jorge Corona

I understand that in the last 18 months, the "cool" factor of my last name has decreased due to world events, but I hope that won't drive you away from this fundraiser. I got into NYU’s Graduate Film program, which accepts just ~30 students per year. For me, this is a great achievement in my formerly undocumented, then DACA-mented, and always a little demented life. But as I plan how to pay for this incredible program, I'm hitting a lot of dead ends. 

The good news: I earned a merit-based scholarship which will cover just under 50% of costs. The bad news: That leaves me with a tuition gap of approximately $25k per semester / $50k a year / $150k total. I'm applying for as many scholarships as I can, but as the financial reality—and that of my undocumented immigrant family—becomes more evident, I'm starting plan B: crowdsourcing for support. 

Many folks have encouraged me to get over my hesitation about fundraising, because call it what you will, at the end of the day it’s asking people for money. I’m reluctant because I know everyone has bills to pay and/or their own unexpected and costly life obstacles. A graduate degree seems like a luxury in comparison. My aversion also definitely comes from an inability—perhaps as a male, perhaps as an upholder of the model immigrant story, perhaps as a regular fool—simply to ask for help when I need it. As hard as it is for me to say it, the truth is that I do need help. And help from others is the only way I've gotten this far. 

Here I am, saying no to apathy. I hope that some of you may be able to help—and even $5 gets us closer to the goal. But even for that $5, please, I’m begging you, only give if you can do so without endangering your own fiscal well-being!

This Might Be a Good Time to Queue Up the Godfather II Soundtrack 

I was born in Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco, which is in the western part of Mexico. When I was 5, we moved northeast to Monterrey in the state of Nuevo León. When I was 9 years old, things took a complicated turn, but here is the short version. There was a bakery in San Antonio, Texas. The owners planned to retire, and a guy they knew was going to buy the business. This man enlisted my parents to manage the bakery, and even told us we could live in an investment property he had. So we ventured to the States under travelers’ visas with the promise that this man could eventually help secure permanent residency. Just after we settled in, the businessman changed his mind about purchasing the bakery, and soon he kicked us out of the house where we were staying. Having sold everything back in Mexico, my parents decided to overstay their travelers’ visas. They would give their own baking business, and life in the United States, a shot.

Hello, USA

The first school I attended in the States was Garner Middle School, followed by Madison High School. I was a powerhouse little immigrant. I made as many friends as I could. I excelled at my academics. I joined the theater department and the video team, winning school-wide and then school-district-wide awards. I graduated 7th in my class of more than 500 students. My senior year, I was even named Student of the Week in the San Antonio Express-News and featured on the local Univision channel.

Me and someone's thumb in my high school's theatre building.

I was also homeless during my senior year. My parents decided to return to Mexico when I was in 12th grade, but I fought to stay put in order to graduate from my high school, even if it meant crashing in multiple friends’ spare rooms. I knew that I had a good chance of getting into college with merit scholarships. And I did. Thanks to the kindness of those around me—including friends whose parents let me couch surf—coupled with lots of hard work, I got into UT Austin, earning a scholarship that covered tuition.

I Worked my Longhorns Off In & Out of School

Being undocumented, finding work was challenging. I was able to earn just enough to cover my living expenses. As a Radio, Television and Film major in the College of Communications, I divided my video projects between documentaries, comedic narratives, and dramas. Around my junior year in college, I caught a break: DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) gave me legal status to work. Soon, I started getting paid regularly for my multimedia projects at the college newspaper, The Daily Texan, where I won the Videographer of the Year award. The Associated College Press awarded me a third place in the Video Story of the Year Award for Sports. 

NYC or Bust

After graduating in 2014, and because I wanted to get closer to a bigger world of independent comedy and filmmaking, I decided to move to New York City.

Me in New York, pointing at a bridge (also in New York).

I've lived here ever since, working a mixture of freelance educational, retail, and media jobs at first, then landing regular gigs at outlets such as Vox Media, The Huffington Post, and a joint Univision/ABC venture called FUSION. It was there that I finally landed a full-time job. I was part of a digital news team that won awards. Some of my freelance work was later chosen by a big textbook publisher in France, Éditions Nathan, to appear in their conversational English textbooks across the Francophone world. Not bad for a guy who grew up with English as a second language!

Me and the textbook Shine Bright, with a screenshot of my Hamburger History video prominently displayed.

Releasing My Inner Norma Rae

Because of company mergers, FUSION became the Gizmodo Media Group, and soon I was making videos for the sports site Deadspin. As all of this took place, I got together with my colleagues and fought for better working conditions. We organized a union through the Writer’s Guild of America East. Through that effort, many of my colleagues—myself included—got their first-ever raise. We shrank salary disparities, won more humane working conditions, and in 2018, we secured a second contract that made industry-wide strides  in protecting and giving power to workers in the unstable digital media world. I was proud that my colleagues in the video department voted me to be their Collective Bargaining Representative in the negotiation room. And later, my fellow representatives voted me to be a co-head of our whole union. Giving voice to our concerns and advocating for a contract across the table from CEOs and their legal counsel was an incredible experience. Through the WGAE, I eventually co-led creative writing sessions for members of United We Dream , the nation’s largest immigrant youth-led network. 

Me John Hancocking the contract with some fellow contract-bargainers.

I’ve Got Nothing Against Men Named “Kevin”

Throughout this period I also earned a Certificate in Improv Comedy and Performance from the Upright Citizens Brigade. I became one-eighth of the group “Dammit, Kevin,” and we booked regular shows around the city, which helped me to hone my comedic voice. 

I also volunteer for organizations that matter to me including local soup kitchens, my church, and immigrant rights organizations such as Make the Road NY . I am conscious that I could not have gotten where I am without the help of others.

Then in August 2019, I joined New York University as its Multimedia Content Producer. I told stories through photos, videos, AR, and new media that celebrated the beauty, the wonder, the silliness, and the academic rigor at NYU and its global network of sites and campuses.

I Want to Tell Stories Having to Do with Mexican-American Life

In an era when animosity toward people like me—and others, from elsewhere in the world—is rising and becoming more public, more institutionalized, and sometimes even more violent, I must do my part to tell another side of the story as loudly as I can, in my hopeful  and often helplessly funny voice. I've done it before. I must do it again. It's my calling. I want to synthesize my range of experiences with research and collaborators. I want to tell stories that the American screen typically doesn’t project. I want to build on work  I've done  before , but now explicitly in the world of independent film. 

I decided that NYU's Graduate Film MFA would be the best way to move towards that goal. So I interviewed. And waited. And waited some more. Then I got the phone call: I was one of the 30 or so students accepted to their legendary program. 

But then I had a tough choice to make. The program advises students, especially first-year students, not to hold a full-time job. This meant that in order to pursue my dream as an NYU film student, I’d need to quit my full-time job as an NYU employee. I spent a few agonizing months weighing the risks, considering blowing all of my savings, analyzing the advice one finds in online forums (Don't do it, Jorge! Yes, Jorge! You, specifically! Don't do this!).

But after much thought, many conversations with great friends, and a lot of curling in the fetal position, I came to my decision: I'm doing it. I'm going to grad school for film at NYU. Damn! It's fun to type out! It's really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as well as a huge honor. 

Looking back at my journey, I'm amazed and humbled that I'm in this position. And people are VERY impressed when I tell them. NYU! The cradle of independent film! Academy Award-winning director Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) just graduated from that school! Good for you! But for every person that reminds me that this is a huge accomplishment, the sound of the financial chains that anchor me to a different reality rings its deafening roar.

I Can’t Do This Alone

Even with my merit scholarship, the cost of the remaining first semester’s tuition alone will wipe out the savings I've accrued in all of my working life. My other option is taking out Graduate PLUS loans, which will accrue an interest rate of 7% as soon as I take them out to pay for tuition. For an arts degree today, even one from the same program that has graduated Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee, that is just an impossible amount of debt for someone like me to take on. I come from a mixed status family. I'm the only person with legal status. We're on our own, and that means I'm my own financial guardian of sorts. Thinking of debt of that magnitude is something I can't really touch in good conscience.

So here I am, with this huge opportunity unfolding, and this equally huge need, and a little bit of exhaustion because the big merit scholarship I have received and the work that I've done thus far is just not enough. One of my colleagues recently reminded me that there are plenty of folks out there who have themselves been helped, who are eager to help others. They want to give to people who are in need, those who've overcome adversities. People who have gotten pretty far but still have a lot of runway left to take flight in life. People whose success stories would in turn inspire others. She also reminded me that not asking for help when we need it is depriving givers a chance to fulfill their own calling to help.

I'll keep applying to scholarships to close the tuition gap, and I'll be working my ass off as I did in undergrad to fund living expenses in New York City, a notoriously cheap place to live (lol!). I've applied to a couple of part-time on-campus jobs, and I'm seeing what freelancing I could feasibly fit into my schedule—this in spite of NYU Film advising students not to work during our first year in the program (how?!). 

Truth is, if this fundraiser goes awry, and if no more scholarships come my way, I will leave the program. And I'm OK with that. I don't think leaving a program I can't afford is a defeat. It'd just be what I'd need to do. It'd kind of be like stepping on a shiny rake and having the handle smash right in my face. I'll probably be a little hurt. But I will laugh a little bit! Because won’t that be kind of absurd? I'll have a bruise on my face, sure. But bruises heal. And once the bruises are gone, and my face is beautiful again, I'll model—or figure out a way to pursue filmmaking beyond the confines of where my money can currently take me.

My face after the bruise heals (visual approximation)

But when I think of the possibilities, of how a graduate education would help me smash some of those inequitable demographics of who does and who doesn't get master's degrees, when I think of all of the folks I could help in the future while grounded in an education like this, when I think of the projects and the stories I could tell through my work in this program, when I think of all of the experiences I've had, of the humor I can offer, and of how I can mix the two together to make something new in this art I've come to love so much ... I realize that I need to give this my best shot. I can have this. And just like before, I can't do it alone.

I hope I can count on some help from you (yes! You, specifically!).

If You Like To Help Strangers With Big Life Stories, Here Are The Financial Deets

I'm setting the goal of this campaign at $50k, as this is the gap I have for my first year's educational expenses.

I received a scholarship of $30k this year, which NYU splits evenly between semesters. My first semester's bill, after my scholarships are applied, comes out to $24k. Adding some padding for GoFundMe's transaction fees (3% per transaction), I figure $25k per semester is a good amount to aim for. I'm paying this still-owed tuition in installments:

50% due August 26
25% due October 5
25% due November 2
That means I need to raise:

$12,000 by August 26
$6,022.25 by October 5
$6,022.25 by November 2

I'd love to raise the full $50k goal by January. Doing that would greatly help me focus on my studies, instead of splitting the goal up again into a payment plan. And look, I've seen GoFundMes raise money beyond their initial goal. If I could raise $150k with this fundraiser alone ($50k tuition gap x 3 years of the program), and then also 3 years of very, very basic NYC living expenses (~$30k per year of the program), I'd be ecstatic, elated, euphoric, enchanted, excited, and eternally (grateful—aw, bummed to end the “e” streak). 

But to be honest, that feels very greedy to me—and kind of crazy! I've never even seen that amount of money. I'm thinking of my rake analogy. Somehow in my head, it feels like it would feel better to get hit by a $50k rake instead of being hit by a $240k rake. (The $50k rake would presumably be made of lighter plastic, right?)

Rake or no rake, I won't know unless I try.

If you are what my friend mentioned, someone who is a giver and would like to help my cause, I hope I can enlist your largesse. I'll keep you updated here on how my journey transforms as time goes on. 

Thanks for even considering helping me out. Let's see where this path leads.