Help Ana study at Berklee College of Music!

Hi, I'm Ana Rafailović, a twenty-year-old guitarist, and the only female guitarist from Serbia who was accepted to the Berklee College of Music in the USA. In order to go to America to study at my dream school, with the scholarship I received from the college, I need another $32,566 for tuition, travel, health insurance and other mandatory expenses in the first semester.

The only way left for me to achieve what I've been dreaming about since childhood is to collect money myself by May 14th 2023, by organizing this donor campaign, since the government of Serbia, the city of Kragujevac, and the biggest companies in our country have not shown any understanding.

This is one of my favorite covers I've ever done :) On bass is my friend Ivona Pavlović

***breakdown of the cost is listen after the end of the text, scroll down for details and a link to the official Berklee website with the cost of attending)

I have wanted to be a professional musician and play for large arenas full of people since I can remember. Studying at Berklee would allow me to make connections with American music industry professionals who can actually help me create the successful international career I've always dreamed of. It would be extremely difficult to build the career I want if I don't form the connections I can only form at Berklee. (The picture below: me, playing the guitar, and entertaining the guests at my birthday party)

My intention is to show that it is possible for a young female guitarist from Serbia to build a notable musical career, but also to repay the solidarity and support she received when she went to Berklee. I want to inspire people in Serbia to support young girls when they express their desire to do music, instead of just telling them that they "can't make a living off of that."When I achieve my dreams, I want to help other girls realize and achieve their full potential and that's why I want to establish a scholarship fund for young female instrumentalists from Serbia who want to study at Berklee College of Music.

I think that everyone's dreams are worth the effort, and persistence, and this is my last hope to make mine come true. I understand that this amount of money is daunting, but even the biggest goals can be achieved by accumulating small steps. So please, when you see the news about my campaign, don't just pass by, because maybe your donation will make a difference and inspire your community to get involved in making a young ambitious girl's dream a reality.

I want to study at Berklee College of Music, because I want to improve my musical skills with the help of the best professors and musicians in the international environment that this college provides. I also want to use my time at Berklee to volunteer, do paid internships, and produce my own music.

Detailed explanation of my situation and why I started this campaign:

I applied for studies at Berklee College in early 2022, and after a demanding audition, in March of the same year, I was notified that I had been accepted and received a partial scholarship that is given only to musicians who demonstrate a very high level of skill on their instrument. Since then, I have spent nearly every day trying to raise the funds for tuition and living expenses in any way I could think of, but my efforts were completely unsuccessful. Since it is a prestigious music college, one semester costs 24,000 dollars, and rent, and other expenses such as books, transportation, food, health insurance, are at least an additional 18,000 dollars. With the scholarship, and the financial relief that the college gave me (due to the fact that there are limited financial resources in Serbia for students in my situation), the costs will amount to $32,566.

I asked for help from the Government of Serbia and the city of Kragujevac, but unfortunately they could not help me because there is no program that fits my situation and the high cost of studies. I also approached companies and private foundations, which did not show understanding for my situation. However, I won't give up on my dreams and that's why I decided to launch this donation campaign and ask for the help of friends, music lovers, especially guitarists, as well as all people of good will who want to support talented and ambitious female artists.

My musical role model when I was growing up was Hannah Montana, a character from the TV show on Disney Channel, and that is why it is especially important to me to study at a school like Berklee, where I would be surrounded by professional and successful female guitarists and producers, because then I could be inspired by the success of these amazing women that actually exist, and are not just a character from a TV series.

About me:

I was born in 2002 in Kragujevac, and graduated with excellent results from the Stanislav Sremcevic Elementary School and the First Grammar School of Kragujevac. In 2012, I started learning to play the guitar at the Oktava music school with professor Mikica Milosavljević, the guitarist of the band Smak, and since then music has been at the center of my life. I played at more than 200 concerts at the Youth Center in Kragujevac, and I also performed at various festivals and club gigs throughout Serbia. Apart from the time I spend with friends, or practicing my musical skills, I also understand how important it is to get involved in local projects that can improve the city where I grew up in, and that's why in 2021 I was a volunteer at the civic activism association Res Publika and one of the promo people for the video campaign "How much do you love Kragujevac?" which inspired many young people to get involved in projects that will improve our community.

I believe that there are enough people who recognize how important it is to support young talents, who represent their city and country in the best way, and that is why I will succeed in my goal. If I for any reason don't manage to raise the money by the deadline, I will redirect the funds to someone who is in a situation like mine, who needs help to achieve their dreams.

Funds can be donated through this platform, by clicking on the donate button or by making payments to the current account in dinar 170-10725839000-74 or foreign currency RS35170001072583900171.

Breakdown of Cost for the first semester (summer semester of 2023)

$12,192 - Tuition for the summer semester of 2023 after $6,100 scholarship, $1308 appeal money, $2000 from my family and $1000 tuition deposit deduction. The tuition deposit was already paid for.

$1,440 - Fees

$236.94 - Software bundle

$2,572 - Health Insurance- to be paid once per academic year

$3,099 - Macbook pro with 32 GB ram mandatory for all entering students; This is a one time only cost

$168 - audio interface required by berklee, PreSonus® AudioBox iTwo

*Students entering Berklee College of Music (including students who spend their first year abroad in Spain) must own a MacBook Pro and an audio interface.

$9,000 - Rent and other living expenses expenses, this is just an estimate cost taken from Berklee Website and adjusted for summer semester. I most likely will be staying off-campus)

$600 - Personal expenses, this is just an estimate cost taken from Berklee Website, and adjusted for a single semester

$550 - Transportation, this is just an estimate cost taken from Berklee Website and adjusted for a single semester

$1,085 - Books, this is just an estimate cost taken from Berklee Website

Federal Stafford Loan fees - $70

Total: $31,313

$1252.52 - 4% that the go get funding platform takes

$32,566 - Complete total (with the percentage that is paid to the gogetfunding platform

https://www.berklee.edu/financial-aid/cost-attenda...