Help Tato Stay in School

Hi,

I want to thank everyone who's taken a moment to read this. My name is Tato; I'm 23, from the Republic of Georgia. I've found myself in a dire financial situation and need community kindness to be able to stay in school. If I manage to raise 1300USD before October 10, I will remain enrolled in classes at CalArts and have my student status maintained.

Here's a little context about my education: At 16, I accepted a scholarship from UWCM and left home to study at an International boarding school in The Netherlands. In May 2021, I graduated from Bennington College with a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts. The same year I got accepted into the California Institute of the Arts Masters's program in Film and Video. However, due to US Visa complications, I had to defer my studies to Fall 2022.

At Bennington, I made a short film about Marriage by Abduction in Georgia called A Very Happy Woman. In my first year at CalArts, I'm expanding on the stories, considering a larger picture, and working on other projects. My artmaking practice is heavily informed by socio-political and class struggles in developing countries and matters surrounding displacement and forced migration. My work investigates intergenerational trauma stemming from past, present and a frail promise of the future. You can see the teasers for A Very Happy Woman here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcsBf8E2VoU, https://youtu.be/GcQelrGkYoc

I could only afford my first year at CalArts through an AAUW grant. They were incredibly generous in giving me 18K USD, split over two semesters, to cover a part of my MFA tuition. CalArts Accounting Office agreed to put me on provisional registration until the end of September. However, a couple of days ago, the grant came through taxed... so instead of receiving 9000USD, I got 7700USD. I have already exhausted the maximum of my and my mother's financial resources. Thankfully the Accounting office agreed to extend my deadline the final time until October 10. My enrollment will be terminated if I don't have the remaining 1.3K to pay off the Fall 2022 term.

My goal is 3000USD to cover the grant amount I'm losing to taxes (2600USD) and help with the next term's bill. For spring term 2023, I will need to come up with an additional 6500USD that will most likely come as a student loan.

Please, if you have the means, consider donating and sharing <3

Thank you for reading!

Best,

Tato