Request for Conference Attendance Support

Hi all,

Thank you so much for visiting and considering this fundraising campaign! I need YOUR help to help me attend professional/academic conferences happening in 2023 and 2024.

About this fundraiser: I intend to graduate with my PhD in spring 2024, and in preparation for finding a job, I have been applied to/been accepted to present at several academic/professional conferences in 2023 and 2024:

The cost: $8,000 to cover registration, hotel, travel, and food. See Budget for specific breakdown of costs

Fundraising timeline: I have approximately 7 months to raise the total amount I need for the conference, but based on the timing of each conference, here are more specific deadlines:

Why attending conferences matters: Attendance at each conference is pivotal for me to have a visible platform to present my research as well as to network with potential future employers.

It is VERY ambitious to try and self-fund five conferences; however, I am so confident in the importance of my research that I am dreaming big in hopes of being able to make it possible to attend all of them.

I receive limited funding (at most $2,500/year) as a PhD student to attend these types of conferences, and the rest, I have to self-fund. That is why I am asking for YOUR help to make my dream possible.

My own financial contributions: I plan to do everything I can to off-set the cost of the conferences by working as much as I can, as well as applying for various scholarships and discounts.

About me: My name is Neal, and I identify as a queer, black, man living with disabilities and I am a fourth and final year of my doctorate at The Ohio State University studying higher education. I am the first in my family to pursue a PhD, and statistically, I make up less than 3% of the total number of doctoral students, and every day, I am constantly reminded how rare my existence is. My overall research focus is to identify how race and racism in college impacts the academic success of Black and Latinx students, specifically looking in the area of international education and study abroad.

Any and all financial support means everything to my success. Thank you for your consideration in supporting my goal!

Neal