Help Lakshmi achieve her journalism dreams!!

Hi everyone!!

The Fellowship:

I am launching this GoFundMe campaign to raise tuition to pay for me to attend The Dalla Lana Fellowship in Global Journalism at The University of Toronto.

I was accepted onto this program just two days ago after several rounds of interviews and submissions of writing materials, and need to start on September 4th in two weeks! This has given me very little time to raise these funds, and although I will be using all of my savings and have explored all other options extensively, I still need some help. 

This program is an MA which contains four weeks from September 4th - October 4th in Toronto at a boot camp style program and two semesters where I could work remotely. Half of my tuition costs have been covered by the Fellowship and its partners, these funds would combine with my savings to allow me to attend the bootcamp portion and pay my remaining tuition fees. 

Here is the link to the program: http://www.dlsph.utoronto.ca/journalism/

If you help me to raise the $18,000 CAD (Around $13,000 USD and £11,000) you will help me to attend this program and achieve my dream of being a science journalist!


My story: 

I have always been a deeply studious person and have spent my life with my head in a book. After struggling a great deal with family tragedies for my teenage years and early twenties, I finally managed to come out of the tunnel this last year. 

This last year I have done so much to work towards helping the world. Among these things, part of my dissertation involved a research project for Syrian refugee children and intellectually disabled adults where I spent my time teaching these groups science to help empower them as individuals. I have done my own TEDx talk on science education and graduated with honours in Biotechnology from the University of Edinburgh. I would like to continue helping the world by attending this fellowship and being able to get my voice heard properly! That's why I'm turning to my family and friends for the help I need! 

I applied for this program to help further my mission of helping people by spreading science and education throughout the world. I was beyond shocked when I was chosen to be one of 20 offered the fellowship. This fellowship would allow me to work with news organisations around the world, creating the contacts that would help me to make a difference and spread science education in the future. 

My purpose:

From my youth, I've always had a huge passion for using communication to help people. I have volunteered constantly for my whole life and after finishing my Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology this year, I would love the opportunity to move into a journalism specialism to help reach and help more people than I could without this. My plan is to graduate from this program and to spend my time contributing as much as I can via journalism to communities who are unable to access science and education. 

I would love your support and help on the biggest journey of my life! 
You can help in two ways...donate and share (hopefully convincing others to donate).


Dates: 

Tuition Raising starts: Friday, August 23rd.
Tuition Raising ends: Friday, December 13th. 

With your help I will be an advocate in the science and journalism worlds for those who need it and the information that needs to be shared!