Window Fashion VISION
New Bern, N.C. — Seven high-achieving design students at accredited colleges will share $12,500 in scholarships this year, courtesy of the Educational Foundation of the International Furnishings and Design Association. “Each award will provide modest funding to help a student toward achieving professional goals,” says Karen Dzendolet, EF’s director of scholarships and grants. “It will also serve as recognition of high-level achievement and career potential.”
The Educational Foundation is the educational and charitable arm of an industry-wide association, with chapters throughout the United States and in Japan as well. Almost from its inception, in 1947, IFDA has recognized that education is a key to career development in the various furnishings and design professions.
EF funding remains the design industry’s largest resource for scholarships to aid students focused on establishing design-industry careers. “Receiving an Educational Foundation scholarship can be a badge of distinction,” adds Dzendolet. “It’s not so much the amount but the purpose and potential that winning one of these scholarships achieves.” Applications can be received between March 1st and 31st for the following scholarships:
• The $3,000 Ruth Clark Furniture Design Scholarship will be awarded to a currently enrolled full- or part-time graduate or undergraduate design student specializing in residential wood and/or upholstered furniture design.
• The $2,000 Vercille Voss IFDA Graduate Student Scholarship is available to a full- or part-time graduate student, one who is currently enrolled at an accredited institution, has completed at least four design courses in post-secondary education and is pursuing a major in interior design or a related field.
• The $2,000 IFDA Student Member Scholarship is open to any student member of an IFDA chapter who has completed at least four design courses in a post-secondary interior design or related program and is majoring in interior design or a design-related field.
• The $1,500 IFDA Leaders Commemorative Scholarship will be given to a full-time student who is currently enrolled in interior design or a related program, is engaged in some volunteer or community-service program and has held at least one leadership post in the past five years.
• The $1,500 Tricia LeVangie Green/Sustainable Design Scholarship is open to full- or part-time undergraduate students who have completed four design courses in post-secondary education, are majoring in interior design or a related field and plan to become motivated and highly informed green-movement participants.
• The $1,500 Part-Time Student Scholarship is available to a high-achieving degree-seeking undergraduate currently enrolled only part time in a continuing interior design or related program at an accredited institution.
• The $1,000 Window Fashion Certified Professionals Fast Track Scholarship is open to anyone enrolled in an interior design or related program at an accredited two- or three-year institution. This scholarship is scaled to fund one full registration for a student seeking workroom or design certification.
“EF scholarships are structured mainly to help students reach out, toward achieving professional goals,” EF’s Dzendolet explains. Details about each scholarship are available online, at www.ifdaef.org, but for answers to specific questions, feel free to contact Karen Dzendolet directly, at karen@kdzdesigns.com.
