Admission to the Master’s program in Illustration/Design at 7 universities in the USA and Europe

With scholarships: $183,360

Focus on an artistic career. We have agreed on the participation of Svetlana’s works in art competitions — Italian Excellence, Pinocchio’s New Clothes, Alive Facing Dead, digital illustration at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition.

Additional training. I completed the Procreate 2025: Book Illustration — Beginner to Expert course and a professional course on Udemy, as well as a large practical bootcamp at Ironhack, with a final project that was highly praised by the commission. During the bootcamp, I continued working on a new collection by the Ukrainian poet and public figure Olga Khvostova — and the final project of the bootcamp formed the basis of the studio’s large project, which later became part of the essay for the fellowship application.

Documents and communication. We created several personalized essays for each program and for scholarship/grant applications, and prepared 3 letters of recommendation — one from a professional reference and two from academic references. The CV went through 3 iterations of refinement. Communication with universities regarding program terms, funding, and deposits was carried out separately.

Portfolio and self‑presentation. A lot of attention was paid to Svetlana’s artistic presentation — the portfolio format, preparation for the portfolio review and interviews, as well as the content for her personal website illustratorka.com. The main task was to seamlessly weave her multifaceted ideas and experience into the narrative of the essays and recommendation letters — to show an artist with a global vision of how to preserve and celebrate cultural memory through art.