Let's get Hannah to Grad School!
Donation protected
The Abridged Version:
Hi there! My partner Alex and I have been working to build our own brand of jewelry and leather goods for the past few years. We're a strong team and have dreams of building our future in France. After months of work I was recently accepted to a well respected design program in Paris that will give us the professional know-how, support and connections to make that happen. However, the costs of tuition and relocating across the world makes the process almost impossible without a little help.
The Director's Cut:
My name is Hannah Woodard. I’m raising money for my future as a professional designer and small business owner.
My creative and life partner Alex (a graphic designer) and I have been slowly but surely building our own line of gender neutral jewelry and leather goods for a number of years now. We’ve got a strong visual identity, a significant body of work and an exceptional amount of enthusiasm. We’ve recently come to realize, however, that what we're lacking are the practical tools to take our vision and work ethic and shape it into a living, breathing future.
We found the answer when we discovered Institut Français de la Mode (IFM), an internationally renowned graduate school in Paris that offers only 10 places a year to students showing exceptional potential in accessories design. It became clear this program would give me the means to finally help build the lives we've been working toward since we were young.
I was determined to become one of the ten accepted into the 2018/19 program and spent the next six months dedicated to the application.
What was the application process like?
The application itself was a comprehensive 6-month process that repeatedly pushed me to my creative (and occasionally emotional) limits. I was asked to sketch, design, build, and professionally present over 30 bags, shoes, and jewelry pieces. Some of the more in-depth requirements involved redesigning a vintage bag and constructing the new bag by hand (see below), answering a mysterious question sent to me from the school in a wax-sealed envelope, and shooting a mini-documentary about my creative process.
I often worked on these projects late into the night after spending the day at my job. In all honesty it felt like an extended episode of Project Runway.
- - - - - - - - - -
The Original Vintage Bag:
My Redesign:
- - - - - - - - - -
I vividly remember packing up my bag, my portfolio (see more at the end) and the IFM Application Video at 3am on May 29th just 4 hours before I had to ship it off to Paris. I walked into the FedEx shipping center at 7:02am, half-conscious, about to ship the last 6 months of my life in a single box 6,000 miles away.
I took a breath and handed it over. All I could do now was wait.
So what happened?!
3 weeks of silence later an email subject line popped up on my phone while I was at work: “IFM Application 2018/19”. My heart jumped and instead of opening it I moved the application icon to its own page so I wouldn't be tempted to check it during the workday. I wanted to wait until I was home with Alex to embrace the news, either way.
As I was driving home later I realized I needed to read it alone. I pulled over and opened the email. The first sentence read: “Dear Hannah, we are pleased to offer you a place in the IFM Postgraduate Design Course…” I didn't even finish the sentence. It felt too surreal to actually be happening.
I floored it the rest of the way home and burst into our room.
"WE GOT IN!"
We cried and held each other for a long time.
We had imagined this moment a million times but it still didn’t feel completely real. And yet it was.
CONGRATS! So why GoFundMe?
As we started planning we quickly realized that paying for this life-changing step would be a bit more complicated than we initially anticipated.
Like many of our peers we are both still paying off considerable student loans from our undergraduate degrees (from RISD, where Alex and I met). Because of IFM’s policy, no one over the age of 29 is eligible for financial aid (my birthday misses the cutoff by 11 days). Turning to loans, I quickly found that because IFM is a smaller institution and outside the U.S., American banks and federal lenders do not "formally recognize" the school and cannot offer help.
In a last ditch effort I started scouring the internet for grants and scholarships— quickly learning that the majority of them are either flatly unavailable to international students or the deadline for this year had long since past. And finally, I used what savings I had to make the down payment to the school to secure my place in the program.
At this point though it doesn't seem like it will be possible to get any further without a little help. This is where you guys come in! Every dollar donated gets us that much closer to our dreams.
How will the money be spent?
100% of the funds raised will go toward:
⁃ Tuition fees (€13,500 / $15,750). Tuition includes all course fees, all materials and production costs, and any transportation and accommodation costs for class trips
⁃ Housing and meals ($750/month for my half of rent, $400/month for groceries, $20,700 total for 18 months)
⁃ Public transportation to and from school ($88/month for a metro pass, $1,584 total for 18 months)
Classes start on September 6, and we hope to make the move to Paris by August 22. We need to know if we'll be able to make this happen by August 1st. If we can raise enough funds here we will be able to take out reasonably sized personal loans to cover the rest.
Thank you!
I poured my heart and soul into this application, and was honored to have been chosen. If you’ve ever needed that extra push to finally make it to where you know you need to be, please consider donating and sharing this link with friends and loved ones.
With deep gratitude and love,
Hannah & Alex
Portfolio samples:
Backpack | leather, custom bronze hardware
Boots | digital illustration
Clutch | leather, suede, bronze
Laptop Case | leather, canvas, custom bronze hardware
Jewelry | bronze
Hi there! My partner Alex and I have been working to build our own brand of jewelry and leather goods for the past few years. We're a strong team and have dreams of building our future in France. After months of work I was recently accepted to a well respected design program in Paris that will give us the professional know-how, support and connections to make that happen. However, the costs of tuition and relocating across the world makes the process almost impossible without a little help.
The Director's Cut:
My name is Hannah Woodard. I’m raising money for my future as a professional designer and small business owner.
My creative and life partner Alex (a graphic designer) and I have been slowly but surely building our own line of gender neutral jewelry and leather goods for a number of years now. We’ve got a strong visual identity, a significant body of work and an exceptional amount of enthusiasm. We’ve recently come to realize, however, that what we're lacking are the practical tools to take our vision and work ethic and shape it into a living, breathing future.
We found the answer when we discovered Institut Français de la Mode (IFM), an internationally renowned graduate school in Paris that offers only 10 places a year to students showing exceptional potential in accessories design. It became clear this program would give me the means to finally help build the lives we've been working toward since we were young.
I was determined to become one of the ten accepted into the 2018/19 program and spent the next six months dedicated to the application.
What was the application process like?
The application itself was a comprehensive 6-month process that repeatedly pushed me to my creative (and occasionally emotional) limits. I was asked to sketch, design, build, and professionally present over 30 bags, shoes, and jewelry pieces. Some of the more in-depth requirements involved redesigning a vintage bag and constructing the new bag by hand (see below), answering a mysterious question sent to me from the school in a wax-sealed envelope, and shooting a mini-documentary about my creative process.
I often worked on these projects late into the night after spending the day at my job. In all honesty it felt like an extended episode of Project Runway.
- - - - - - - - - -
The Original Vintage Bag:
My Redesign:
- - - - - - - - - -
I vividly remember packing up my bag, my portfolio (see more at the end) and the IFM Application Video at 3am on May 29th just 4 hours before I had to ship it off to Paris. I walked into the FedEx shipping center at 7:02am, half-conscious, about to ship the last 6 months of my life in a single box 6,000 miles away.
I took a breath and handed it over. All I could do now was wait.
So what happened?!
3 weeks of silence later an email subject line popped up on my phone while I was at work: “IFM Application 2018/19”. My heart jumped and instead of opening it I moved the application icon to its own page so I wouldn't be tempted to check it during the workday. I wanted to wait until I was home with Alex to embrace the news, either way.
As I was driving home later I realized I needed to read it alone. I pulled over and opened the email. The first sentence read: “Dear Hannah, we are pleased to offer you a place in the IFM Postgraduate Design Course…” I didn't even finish the sentence. It felt too surreal to actually be happening.
I floored it the rest of the way home and burst into our room.
"WE GOT IN!"
We cried and held each other for a long time.
We had imagined this moment a million times but it still didn’t feel completely real. And yet it was.
CONGRATS! So why GoFundMe?
As we started planning we quickly realized that paying for this life-changing step would be a bit more complicated than we initially anticipated.
Like many of our peers we are both still paying off considerable student loans from our undergraduate degrees (from RISD, where Alex and I met). Because of IFM’s policy, no one over the age of 29 is eligible for financial aid (my birthday misses the cutoff by 11 days). Turning to loans, I quickly found that because IFM is a smaller institution and outside the U.S., American banks and federal lenders do not "formally recognize" the school and cannot offer help.
In a last ditch effort I started scouring the internet for grants and scholarships— quickly learning that the majority of them are either flatly unavailable to international students or the deadline for this year had long since past. And finally, I used what savings I had to make the down payment to the school to secure my place in the program.
At this point though it doesn't seem like it will be possible to get any further without a little help. This is where you guys come in! Every dollar donated gets us that much closer to our dreams.
How will the money be spent?
100% of the funds raised will go toward:
⁃ Tuition fees (€13,500 / $15,750). Tuition includes all course fees, all materials and production costs, and any transportation and accommodation costs for class trips
⁃ Housing and meals ($750/month for my half of rent, $400/month for groceries, $20,700 total for 18 months)
⁃ Public transportation to and from school ($88/month for a metro pass, $1,584 total for 18 months)
Classes start on September 6, and we hope to make the move to Paris by August 22. We need to know if we'll be able to make this happen by August 1st. If we can raise enough funds here we will be able to take out reasonably sized personal loans to cover the rest.
Thank you!
I poured my heart and soul into this application, and was honored to have been chosen. If you’ve ever needed that extra push to finally make it to where you know you need to be, please consider donating and sharing this link with friends and loved ones.
With deep gratitude and love,
Hannah & Alex
Portfolio samples:
Backpack | leather, custom bronze hardware
Boots | digital illustration
Clutch | leather, suede, bronze
Laptop Case | leather, canvas, custom bronze hardware
Jewelry | bronze
Organizer
Hannah Woodard
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA