HI! You may not know me, but...
...my name is Rebecca Gibson, and in May (yay!) I'll be graduating from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, with a MA in Women's Studies and Anthropology. I'm in the process of PhD applications (not quite so yay...) and am quite hopeful that I will be getting into one of the seven to which I applied. However, only two of them are in the Boston area, which means that for any of the other five, I'll have to move.
Hence, this indiegogo campaign. I'm living off student loans (really not at all yay.) And in the summer, between semesters, those loans turn into a pumpkin, and I will be out of money. Completely. Kaput. Of course, I'll be looking for a job. Of course. But, seriously, how many three month, well paying positions are there for someone transitioning to a new location on short notice?
So, here's the thing: Richard Nixon got a full ride to Harvard, but couldn't afford the train ticket to get there. I don't want to end up bitter and angry like Nixon, thus prolonging the Vietnam war, now do I? By contributing to this campaign, you will ensure that I can hire a moving truck, pay for gas, eat all through the summer, and not turn out to become a bad president. Or even a bad physical anthropolgist, because I'm pretty good at what I do.
What We Need & What You Get
For this campaign, I am targeting a goal of $5000. This would be enough to feed, house, and transport me for the summer, and to establish myself in a new city. Furthermore, on the (almost anti-yay) possibility that I do not get into any of my selected PhD programs, this would make me able to stay in my current apartment while I job search in the Boston area.
And you'll get cool perks! I'm a published poet--for donations between $1 and $10, you will get a personalized poem. Smaller donations will get the poem e-mailed to you, while larger ones will be hand written and mailed. You request the topic, I will write poetry about it, just for you!
Donations between $11 and $25 will get a poem and a watercolored picture, also on a topic of your choice.
Donations between $25 and $100 will get your choice of a poem OR a picture, and freshly baked cookies.
Donations over $100 will get your choice of a poem or a picture, and a souvenir from my new university.
If my $5000 goal isn't reached, whatever funding I do recieve will be put toward moving. All donors will receive their perks whether the goal is reached or not.
The Impact
Why do I want to get into a PhD program so badly, you might ask? My current research is super cool! I am looking at the physical and social effects of corseting during the Victorian period, in England and France. This research will make a valuable contribution to the scholarship about Victorian women, and it has taken me to London and Bath in the UK, and Paris and Lyon in France. I really love my work, I am absolutely a born anthropologist and scholar, and I need to continue.
And if you can't contribute...
...you can boost the signal! Share on facebook, tweet your heart's out, tell your friends, write it (in chalk, 'k peeps?) on the walls, to get this seen by more and more people!