Sign up to our newsletter for daily updates and breaking news Sign up here! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A Cambridge University PhD student is making artwork to help pay for her studies.

Kalifa Damani, 27, from Trinidad and Tobago, is in the second year of her PhD in Educational Technology at Corpus Christi College.

The multi-talented Caribbean student has taken her childhood pastime to the next level to deal with expensive tuition fees.

Kalifa said: “Art started off as a hobby. I’ve liked drawing since I was little, and I started painting as a teenager.

“It was my best subject at school and I did very well in A-Level Art."

Kalifa started working as a graphic designer at a newspaper after she left school and “wasn’t actually planning on going to university”.

But her talent was recognised when she won a government scholarship which paid for university tuition.

So Kalifa gave up her job and achieved a first class honours undergraduate degree in Psychology and Film at the University of the West Indies.

She was then offered a place to study for a Social and Developmental Psychology Masters at Cambridge.

Kalifa’s artistic success and academic ability have led to her being featured in Trinidad and Tobago’s national press.

In an appearance on Trinidadian breakfast television, she said: “I got into Social and Developmental Psychology because I really wanted to help young people to achieve their best in education and business – to become good entrepreneurs and good citizens.”

But funding UK university study was difficult, and Kalifa started a Go Fund Me campaign in April 2015 to offer her illustration services and ask for donations.

She has done well over 100 commissions since then, as well as countless personal drawings in her spare time.

“I find it hard to describe my style since I think it depends a lot on what I feel and who or what is inspiring me at the given moment.

“Sometimes I like to paint in a very realistic style, and other times it’s more in the vein of children’s illustration and is cute, whimsical, and sketchy.

“People are my favourite subject, and I draw to express how I feel, or to accompany my journal entries."

When she isn't studying, Kalifa makes mostly digital art with a tablet and stylus for clients and as a form of relaxation.

“Sketching the life I see around me helps me relax and allows me to look at my experience in Cambridge as something rich that will strengthen me as a person.

“Sometimes in the process of creating artwork to a client’s specification, I realise I enjoy the style they’ve asked me to create and so incorporate it into future work.”

The Caribbean artist thinks she has made between £10,000 to £15,000 so far from commissions and donations.

She needs £32,000 to pay her tuition fees for this term, next term, and the third and final year of the PhD.

“I want to finish my PhD next year, but unfortunately, some of the big projects that I was relying on to get money have fallen through, and right now, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish.

“Things haven’t worked out as smoothly as I had hoped, but I am still trying my best to complete the degree by doing artwork within the confines of what my student visa and the university allow.

“Because of the stress my situation has caused me, it has been hard for me to feel very stressed about the PhD! My academic work has gone fairly smoothly.”

Kalifa is currently in Trinidad doing fieldwork for her PhD.

Her research centres on the use of technology in Caribbean schools to give poorer children better access to education.

She will be back in Cambridge at the beginning of May to start writing up her findings.

To see more of Kalifa’s artwork or to commission a piece, visit her Facebook page or email her at kalifadamani@gmail.com.

You can also donate via her Go Fund Me page.