One Semester Away: Support an International MFA Student

We are fellow artists and friends who organized this GoFundMe to help bridge the gap for this Fall 2025 semester for one of our friends in the UMass Dartmouth MFA program. Our friend is a soon-to-be second-year student from a country targeted by the latest series of travel bans. They are doing everything they can to support themselves within their visa guidelines, while continuing to make high-quality artistic work. The MFA program is a three-year program. They have completed the first year with flying colors and can count on a teaching assistantship to kick in during the second semester, which will get them through year three. But we need to raise $5,000 to fill the gap between their current means and the tuition & fees for the fall semester 2025.

The possibility of having to return to their home country without a degree due to a lack of funds for one semester, and the knowledge of how unlikely it is that they would be able to return to the US, is enormously stressful. Please join us in raising the money to fill the gap. This is a tangible way to make a huge difference in the life of a kind, creative, hard-working artist who adds so much to the whole community of other makers here at UMass.

Artist Statement

I am a fiber artist pursuing my MFA at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. My work is deeply connected to nature, exploring personal narratives of displacement, adaptation, and identity. Through weaving, sculpture, photography, dyeing, and printmaking, I examine the intricate interplay between tradition and contemporary expression. Driven by a continuous curiosity to experiment with diverse techniques, my practice captures the richness and resilience of the natural world in tactile and evocative forms.