Help Kirin Continue their Metalsmithing Education!

Hello, I’m Kirin.

I need your help to get to the next part of my journey. I would like to tell you my story so that you understand the profound impact your donation would have on my life.

(CW: sexual assault, trauma, violence)

It is important to me that you understand what I have gone through. You hearing me tell my story means that you’ll know what I have had to survive in order to get where I am.

While living in Washington in April of 2017 I was assaulted at knifepoint during a home invasion. While this was not at all the only violent assault I had encountered, this event significantly altered the course of my adult life. Any chance that I thought I had as a 24-year- old to climb upward out of poverty and the cycle of compounding abuse that I seemed to be stuck in - seemed to dissolve out of reach.

This violent assault led to me having to return to my hometown, where I couch-surfed for 4 years with no guarantees of safety and no way to get better. During that time, I was enrolled in a rehab program, the purpose of which was to keep me off the streets, since at that point I had been completely disabled due to PTSD and was unable to provide for myself. But due to rising costs of living and the COVID-19 pandemic - I quickly lost all housing options in my city and was forced to relocate to New Mexico where my sister had luckily just settled down.

This sudden move meant having to drop out of the program that I hoped would be the very thing to get me back on track. While I didn’t have the ability to finish the program, I did come away from my time there with new questions that would eventually foment my search for a diagnosis in New Mexico.

As you can imagine, over the years I have developed compounding mental and physical health issues due to my experiences and my struggles to stay off the streets. As I settled into my new home in New Mexico, I attempted to make sense of everything that had ever happened to me.

In April of 2022, I received a diagnosis for Autism Spectrum Disorder. I had gone my entire life until the age of 29 not knowing I was developmentally disabled. Suddenly everything made sense. As I would soon find out, my diagnosis was a large part of my vulnerability to sexual violence as well as other forms of violence and poverty throughout my youth.

As a result of this late diagnosis, I have not had the community or therapeutic resources necessary for my independence and well-being. But I decided that it was never too late to start life on my own terms.

A New Chapter

I have been attending Central New Mexico Community College (CNM) for the past few semesters as an art student with a focus in metalsmithing, specifically jewelry construction and design. Through my hard work and perseverance at CNM I have been inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa international honor society. I am also a member of the New Mexico Jewelers Association, in hopes of utilizing whatever resources are available to me.

Because I have taken so well to the art of metalsmithing I plan to make it my trade. I aim to become a skilled silversmith. I wish to move forward with my education and take courses at the Institute for American Indian Arts (IAIA). After much research, this is the best option for me. It is a wonderful school with everything that I will need to reach my goals in metalsmithing, and it will offer me the place to form community as a native student.

My goal is to refine my skills and develop a style that reflects myself both in personality and heritage, as well as finding opportunities for apprenticeship.

Where Do You Come In?

My journey to get here has forced me to persevere through unimaginable odds and I am hoping that you can help me get to the next step of my educational career.

Without a car, attending IAIA will be completely inaccessible. It is about 50 minutes from my home in Albuquerque and there are no viable public transportation options that would work for me. The funds I raise will help me because they will go towards getting a car so that I may have reliable cost-and-time-efficient transportation. I will use the funds to not only purchase a vehicle but to also pay for the first 6 months of insurance, gas, and any possible repairs and maintenance for the first 6 months of owning the vehicle.

Having a car would give me a tremendous amount of independence and would grant me some of the peace of mind that I have been looking for my entire life. Knowing that I will be able to get where I need to go when I need to will have a great impact on me and will allow me to continue my dream of becoming a silversmith. Please know that your donation, no matter the size, will bring me one step closer to that goal.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.