Donation protected
Hi! I’m Tife, alias Jai-Head and I am a Brooklyn based International student completing my Master’s in Digital Animation and Visual Effects. I am currently working on my thesis, “SnakeMaster: Let Your Daemons Play''; a 3D Animated Short Film about two Orishas/Daemons (Nigerian traditional mythical deities) Layla and Lash who learn that magical things happen when we put aside our differences and play!
Just like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I am building a 3D/CG animated Universe where remarkable stories and films will be produced about the heroic and other-worldly lives of the Orishas in contemporary society. The Yoruba Orishas have a rich and vast mythology that spans West Africa all the way to South America and the Caribbean. I believe these adventures deserve to be retold on a Global Stage through Animation. My thesis film will be just one of the stories in this series but none of this may come to fruition without your help.
Unfortunately, after two and a half years of supporting myself through school as an international student, I am afraid I might be forced to terminate my studies a semester early, put a hold on my thesis and return back to my home country after nearly eight years of an educational and professional career in the United States.
International students without US permanent residence must be enrolled as full-time students for the duration of their stay in the US. The International student fees, often 2 to 3 times higher than the fees of our American colleagues, are expected to be paid promptly and out of pocket. This is because scholarships are very difficult to secure for non-US citizens. Federal, State, or Private loan opportunities are not made available to foreign students, and the very few that do, provide loans with exorbitant interest rates that capitalize on young and desperate foreign students looking to improve the quality of their lives.
Furthermore, the US Immigration law prohibits foreign students from receiving gainful employment under any capacity outside their college while enrolled as full-time students. Therefore, foreign students, like me, must rely on their personal life savings and contributions from friends and family to support themselves and their education.
All that said, I value the US Immigration system and I am grateful for the good work they do in helping people like me enjoy the opportunities and privileges of this beautiful country. Moreso, these challenges have only made me a stronger, more disciplined, and driven individual. Thankfully, I have been able to make it this far in my educational career and I am grateful for every day I get to be in America, practicing a craft that has provided me with so much meaning and fulfillment.
This is where your generosity will be severely appreciated. At this juncture of my life, what I need to make my dream a reality, is $25,000 by February 28th, 2021.
Your contribution will go directly towards my tuition allowing me to:
1. Enroll in my final semester of classes in my Master’s Program this Spring,
2. Complete my 3-year MFA in Digital Animation and Visual Effects in May 2021,
3. Screen my thesis short film “ SnakeMaster: Let Your Daemons Play” in festivals around the world,
4. Ultimately, launch a career that will put the African Mythological Pantheon and a host of other under-represented stories on the big screen through Animation and Computer Graphics!
It is truly remarkable how a group of strangers on the internet could affect so much change by simply believing in the best in each other. That is why I am respectfully appealing to the global community on GoFundMe to please consider making a donation towards my tuition and future as a CG artist.
Nothing would fulfill me more than the opportunity to retell the great exploits of the Yoruba Orishas to the world with Computer Graphics and maybe spark a light in the hearts and minds of the future filmmakers and CG artists on the African continent with stories they are dying to tell of their magnificent Ancestral heritage. Thank you in advance for giving us a chance.
Just like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I am building a 3D/CG animated Universe where remarkable stories and films will be produced about the heroic and other-worldly lives of the Orishas in contemporary society. The Yoruba Orishas have a rich and vast mythology that spans West Africa all the way to South America and the Caribbean. I believe these adventures deserve to be retold on a Global Stage through Animation. My thesis film will be just one of the stories in this series but none of this may come to fruition without your help.
Unfortunately, after two and a half years of supporting myself through school as an international student, I am afraid I might be forced to terminate my studies a semester early, put a hold on my thesis and return back to my home country after nearly eight years of an educational and professional career in the United States.
International students without US permanent residence must be enrolled as full-time students for the duration of their stay in the US. The International student fees, often 2 to 3 times higher than the fees of our American colleagues, are expected to be paid promptly and out of pocket. This is because scholarships are very difficult to secure for non-US citizens. Federal, State, or Private loan opportunities are not made available to foreign students, and the very few that do, provide loans with exorbitant interest rates that capitalize on young and desperate foreign students looking to improve the quality of their lives.
Furthermore, the US Immigration law prohibits foreign students from receiving gainful employment under any capacity outside their college while enrolled as full-time students. Therefore, foreign students, like me, must rely on their personal life savings and contributions from friends and family to support themselves and their education.
All that said, I value the US Immigration system and I am grateful for the good work they do in helping people like me enjoy the opportunities and privileges of this beautiful country. Moreso, these challenges have only made me a stronger, more disciplined, and driven individual. Thankfully, I have been able to make it this far in my educational career and I am grateful for every day I get to be in America, practicing a craft that has provided me with so much meaning and fulfillment.
This is where your generosity will be severely appreciated. At this juncture of my life, what I need to make my dream a reality, is $25,000 by February 28th, 2021.
Your contribution will go directly towards my tuition allowing me to:
1. Enroll in my final semester of classes in my Master’s Program this Spring,
2. Complete my 3-year MFA in Digital Animation and Visual Effects in May 2021,
3. Screen my thesis short film “ SnakeMaster: Let Your Daemons Play” in festivals around the world,
4. Ultimately, launch a career that will put the African Mythological Pantheon and a host of other under-represented stories on the big screen through Animation and Computer Graphics!
It is truly remarkable how a group of strangers on the internet could affect so much change by simply believing in the best in each other. That is why I am respectfully appealing to the global community on GoFundMe to please consider making a donation towards my tuition and future as a CG artist.
Nothing would fulfill me more than the opportunity to retell the great exploits of the Yoruba Orishas to the world with Computer Graphics and maybe spark a light in the hearts and minds of the future filmmakers and CG artists on the African continent with stories they are dying to tell of their magnificent Ancestral heritage. Thank you in advance for giving us a chance.
Organizer
Boluwatife Odumosu
Organizer
New York, NY