Aslis Lastyear education in the Netherlands

I´m a 24 year old 3rd year Textile Art and Design student at the Rietveld Academy Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I come from a multi-cultural background, grew up in Turkey and studied in Asia for 4 years. I went to Asia because I wanted to experience living by myself in an international community where my other half comes from. I successfully finished my IGCSE diploma as well as IB diploma. After my high-school I came to the Netherlands to start an education in Art and Design. The reason why I chose to come to the Netherlands is because the Art and Design education is very well-known here for its open-mindedness, creativity and expression. I fought through my time here since 2010 to finish my studies. I already came here with financial troubles when my parents could no longer help financing me. I worked besides school about 35 hours a week to be able to pay my accomodation as well as food and material costs. I did various jobs such as waitressing, cleaning and I even started my own service in the university I was studying, namely Design Academy Eindhoven, selling lunchboxes which was my passion to do because of introducing different types of cuisines I learned from my international friends, having lived in Asia. I always liked the social aspect of bringing people together through food. After taking a year break from school in 2011 and going to Switzerland to work to be able to earn some money, I could come back to the Netherlands to continue my education. I came to Rietveld Academy Textile department because I have sensitivity for tactility, material and i felt that it was a place where I could learn and express myself and my work.I did many projects including an interview with a Tibetian Refugee from Switzerland as part of my refugee project, whom I met during my time in Switzerland learning german together with refugees of the area. I later translated this project into an artwork on the subject of "Anonymous refugee"Another project includes organizing a social event in the old library of the academy, inviting Turkish women from my neighbourhood to hold a Turkish ravioli making event. The project was to bring the turkish women out of their comfort zone of "home" into a public place where their rituals at home is finally revealed to the public. The students and some teachers participated in the process of making, which was made into a documentary and later translated into an artwork of the "dough house".Recently, I´ve been busy doing projects on natural dyeing, turning waste from my kitchen back to the table by dyeing silk in these wastes. I handwove silk yarns into a cloth to put over the dining table where the waste is back in contact with people dining. The colors of the fabric changes and disappears in time depending on use.I´m also selected for Artist in Residency program in Blooming Hotel Bergen, the Netherlands to make an artwork being inspired by the surrounding. I dye with the nature and turn these into a work of Art.I like to bring people together through food, share ideas, learn from their culture and also to use the waste from their kitchens to weave fabrics to turn them into artworks. This is the direction I´m heading towards to in my thesis- how to translate stories of people from different cultural backgrounds into textiles.I have been trying to find Funds in the last 3 months and its very difficult because I do not come from the EU. I could work in the summer but I have to do my internship as part of my education which I do not get payed for. Finding work is also very difficult here for me because of papers which employers do not want to deal with. I do cleaning works for friend´s families and looking after their children once and then to be able to pay for my school materials etc. This will be my last year at the academy, graduating in June 2015 (hopefully) and I, as well as my teachers, really believe in my work and my fight to make this happen. I fought with my life in Europe to make this education happen for myself and I came this far to finish it and now I really need your help to pay for my last year tuition fee.You can view my temporary website at:www.cargocollective.com/AsliBuergeryou can also mail me if you have any questions: [email protected] you for your time and helps, I highly appreciate any support from you.