Nada Ali
My family advocated for the importance of education and pushed me to excel academically, their support and encouragement represents a privilege that not all Egyptian women have access to.
Acknowledging this privilege has driven my ambition to support women who lack access to the educational opportunities that have shaped me. I want to combine my passion for the arts and my advocacy for women’s mental health to use storytelling and animation to address the social issues faced by Egyptian women and help remove the stigma around mental health.
I intend to reach this goal by completing a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Film and Animation at Rochester Institute of Technology which, in addition to my bachelor's degree in Animation and Children book illustration.
Pursuing this qualification outside of my home country is a huge leap, it’s a necessary step as universities in Egypt don’t have access to vital resources required to deliver the standard of teaching that RIT offers.
RIT has access to industry level facilities such as their MAGIC Spell Studio which is located on-campus. Having access to a professionally equipped studio will allow me to work with and experience industry standard production pipelines and minimize that, always present, gap between student and professional work. This is just one example of the resources that will take me a step closer to producing professional level animations that will address the systematic gender inequality that women face globally.
Due to the currency exchange rate of the EGP to the USD, my full-time monthly salary is 500$. This presents a huge barrier to me being able to pursue this qualification without additional fundings.
Despite numerous rejections in my pursuit of postgraduate education, as getting accepted is solely dependent on the art portfolio, even after ranking second at my undergraduate with honors degree, my art still lacked the required acceptance level, but I persevered, and continuously improved my craft.
As a result of this determination, I’ve been offered a place at RIT, and due to how strong my application was, I was offered a 60% merit scholarship. However, even after working my legal 20h a week on-campus as an international student alongside my studies, I’d only be able to afford either the rest of tuition or necessities such as accommodation and food, but not both.
Moreover, pursuing an MFA in animation, having it as a terminal degree, would help me achieve a second career objective of mine which is teaching animation.
Coming from a family of educators, I see teaching as a means of giving back and nurturing the next generation of Egyptian animators.
Growing up, I was inspired by an Egyptian animated show called Bakkaar, I had a representation that looked like me, had my culture and spoke my tongue, nowadays generation doesn’t have a similar experience they could relate to which is crucial to their sense of Arabic Identity, Heritage and Values that I determined to create a content as such after completing my degree.
I was put on this earth to story tell, I'm a storyteller, that's my purpose, my culture and heritage has a unique story that deserves to be told.
