Help Rebecca Study Architecture at Yale

Dear friends,

I have exciting news: I've been accepted to Yale University’s Master’s in Architecture program beginning in Fall 2024! The institution has granted me an incredible full-tuition scholarship, for which I am very grateful. However, I need to come up with all other expenses such as housing, travel and healthcare. As I am sure you are aware, these expenses can be crippling for an international student. Even with all my savings and loans, I still need your help. This is why I am reaching out to my community, hoping that with your assistance, I can make this dream a reality.

Why architecture?

I grew up moving between the potholed streets of Mthatha and my family’s rural village in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. From an early age, I developed a sensitivity for how the built environment shapes behavior – from the warmth and conviviality of my family’s traditional Xhosa hut to the new road that reduced trips to my grandmother by two hours. My childhood gave me something that has woven its way into everything I do: a desire to foster wholesome relationships through design. I have seen how good design transforms human behavior, nudging people towards interaction, harmony, creativity and hope – and how bad design can do the opposite.

At first, this longing to effect change through intentional design took form through my work on alternative economics. As an undergraduate student at Minerva University, I led the world's first randomized control trial on community-owned currency, merging indigenous mutual aid practices with blockchains. I later co-founded a civic technology startup in Oakland. The “architecture” I knew best had to do with economic networks – how we restructure incentives and make room for relationships that otherwise go unseen. In this perceiving, structuring and “making room for,” I rediscovered my childhood passion for architecture. I believe the built environment can be a conduit for social justice and ecological sustainability, and I want to play a role in how this unfolds across Africa’s dense urban spaces.

In 2023, I began taking this idea further. I took an extended sabbatical from my work to prepare for architectural studies. I developed a design portfolio from scratch and took several bridging courses.

Like anyone embarking on a new journey, I felt doubt at times. “Is this change really worth it?” I asked myself. But the more I delved into architecture, the more I realized that this new chapter is not so much a departure from my prior work as an integration of everything I love doing and believe in.

The next chapter: Yale School of Architecture

I have been accepted to programs at Columbia, Cornell, Yale, and Harvard. Yale has graciously awarded me an almost unbelievable full-tuition scholarship of $62,300.

Despite this incredible financial support, I face substantial first-year expenses as an international student. I’m asking for your help in raising $10,000 to supplement my savings towards costs like visa fees, pre-requisite courses, travel, academic supplies, and accommodation.

Your support, big or small, brings me one step closer to realizing my dream. To everyone who's already been a part of this journey, and to everyone whose contribution will make a world of a difference: thank you from the bottom of my heart.

With love and gratitude,

Rebecca