Educational Foundation of the IFDA Announces Scholarship Winners

October 19, 2022  by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Designer Weekly, Industry   

“Congratulations to all the winners! We are very pleased to award scholarships to these talented individuals who will shape the design and furnishings industry in the years to come,” said Helen Wagner, Chairman of the Board of the Educational Foundation of IFDA. “Nurturing and supporting talent is what we are all about.”

Jane Nichols, FIFDA, Director of Scholarships and Grants, echoed the sentiment. “We received many applications from across the country, and the judges were challenged to select the winners.”

Applicants must be currently enrolled in school and scholarships are paid to the school for the 2022 fall semester tuition. The eight scholarship winners share a passion for creating interior environments that are healthy, sustainable and enhance the quality of life.

Dylan Boroski of Florida State University in Tallahassee won the IFDA Leaders Commemorative Scholarship for $1,500 open to full-time undergraduate students. He is a fourth-year student in the Interior Architecture and Design program focusing on a career in interior design and architecture. Boroski wants to focus his career on sustainable design. 

The Part-Time Student Scholarship for $1,500 open to undergraduate students was awarded to Elaine Mansure, a furniture design student at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., graduating in the spring of 2023. She looks forward to experiencing future opportunities within the furniture industry.

Brianna Lee, a third-year college student at Converse University in Spartanburg, S.C. studying interior design was the winner of the IFDA Student Member Scholarship for $2,000 open to undergraduate IFDA student members.  Her goal after graduation is to work in an interior design firm doing commercial and hospitality design.

The Vercille Voss IFDA Graduate Student Scholarship for $2,000 went to Abel Peter, a graduate student at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. He is pursuing a master’s in architecture with a concentration in Interior Design. He specializes in ‘Building Adaptive Reuse’ and is a licensed architect.

Tomoki Nomura of ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CalIf. won the Ruth Clark Furniture Design Scholarship for $4,000 open to full- or part-time undergraduate or graduate students with a course emphasis on furniture design. Born and raised in Japan, Nomura has lived and worked around the world since the age of 13.

Sarah Lewis, a senior at North Carolina State University in Raleigh studying Industrial Design, was awarded the Tricia LeVangie Green/Sustainable Design Scholarship for $1,500 for full- or part-time undergraduate students. Her passion for the outdoors drives her focus to create and develop sustainable products as an industrial designer. In the future, she sees herself developing eco-circular products that inspire consumers to live sustainably.

Melanie Calan Sanchez, a student at Salem College in Winston-Salem, N.C. with a great love of art, was named the winner of the IFDA Philadelphia Scholarship for Graphic Design for $2,500, open to two- three- or four-year undergraduates. Sanchez will graduate with a bachelor’s degree this upcoming year and is working toward a major in Graphic Design with a minor in Visual and Performing Arts.

Lauren Hellner, a fourth-year student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, won the Window Fashion Certified Professionals Fast Track Scholarship for $1,000 (one full registration for the webinar series) that is open to undergraduates in a two-, three- or four-year design school program. She is studying Interior Architecture and minoring in Professional Selling.