Help Mickayla continue at Interlochen

My name is Mickayla Jade Noel. Thanks to family, friends, anonymous donor, and Higher Achievement, I am now a sophomore at Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen Michigan, as a Creative Writing major. (http://academy.interlochen.org/creative-writing-boarding-high-school).

I am so excited about attending Interlochen. During Middle School, I attended a program called Higher Achievement Program (HAP) http://www.higherachievement.org/ I discovered my love of writing and performing poetry in the program. I attended the HAP Alexandria Achievement Center, after school and during the summer from the 5th through 8th grade. The program provided me with an additional 650 hours a year of academic enrichment, following a rigorous advanced curriculum, receiving academic coaching and support, mentoring, skill-building, and personal encouragement.

Through Higher Achievement, I gained a new perspective on my academic work, my creativity, and my leadership abilities. I was able to participate in mock trial exercises, business plan development workshops, and a poetry workshop conducted by White House Fellows.

Higher Achievement gave me many, many opportunities to hone my public speaking and performance skills, around the DC Metro and Richmond, VA areas. In 2012, I won the Higher Achievement Literary Love Poetry Contest at the Alexandria Center, and performed my original poetry at a variety of venues, including the internationally renowned Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It was through this performance that Interlochen Arts Academy was brought to my attention, and now I have been accepted as a member of the Class of 2016.

The cost of boarding tuition at Interlochen is $50,460 After deducting merit and need-based scholarships, and a generous anonymous donation, our remaining annual need is somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000 per year. At this point I am searching for financial support from scholarships, service organizations, private donors, writing contests, and posting to this website for help with my tuition at Interlochen.

All donations are welcome. Of course it would be great to have some people or organizations sponsor me for the full amount until I graduate. However, I'm realistically hoping for people read my story, watch my youtube videos at http://www.youtube.com/mickaylanoel, and want to get involved; then, those people could tell more people, and finally if enough people donate whatever amount of money they feel comfortable contributing, it will all come together. This is an opportunity that I cannot let slip away. Will you help me?

Please donate money; any amount is appreciated; donate time by sharing my message with your friends and family and ask them to do the same. There is power in numbers. Post on social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others; and checkout my YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/mickaylanoel

I finally have the opportunity to learn in an environment where creativity is understood, and the students are artistic just like me. I know that by attending Interlochen, these opportunities will continue blossom for me, and that my future will be a bright and successful one.

If you have ideas or suggestions, let me know. Thank you for your well wishes, your encouragement, and your prayers. Thank you in advance for helping to fund my dream of getting to the Interlochen Arts Academy.