Daily News

From Home Furnishing Business

Moh Scholars Visit High Point Market

November 25, 2013  by in High Point, Market   

As part of the home furnishings industry’s most prestigious scholarship, the students participated in an all-expenses-paid trip to High Point Market to learn more about product design and development, marketing, merchandising, sales, and retailing. In addition, they saw how the varied channels of the home furnishings industry interact, how the market is envisioned and implemented, and how companies position themselves in the global business marketplace.

Influential businesses and individuals provided behind-the-scenes access and insider knowledge across the two-and-a-half day program. Showrooms that offered personal guided tours and product development conversations included: Fine Furniture Design; HGTV HOME Furniture Collection; The Phillips Collection; Theodore Alexander; Aspenhome and Century Furniture

The scholars also heard presentations from industry notables including Ed Tashjian, CEO of Tashjian Marketing; Larry Boyd, senior vice president of Tribuzio-Hilliard Studios; Ray Allegrezza, editor-in-chief of Furniture Today; Lee Allen, director of the International Buyers’ Center for the High Point Market Authority and Karla Webb, director of the Bienenstock Furniture Library.

Wrapping up the event, more than 20 executives plus former Celia Moh Scholarship recipients working in the furnishings industry gathered with the students for the annual Power Roundtable Dinner allowing the scholars to engage and build networks with leaders representing lighting, fine art and photography, showroom design, fabric and cushioning suppliers, kitchen and bath design, retail merchandising, marketing, management, public relations, logistics, product design and interior design.

The Celia Moh Scholarship is considered one of the preeminent academic scholarship programs for students bound for careers in the home furnishings industry, paying full-time tuition and fees, room, board and books for its recipients.  

Established in 2001 by furniture industry entrepreneur Laurence Moh, best known as the founder of Universal Furniture and later, Fine Furniture Design, to honor his wife, Celia, the program’s strategically managed $3 million endowment investment has provided 80 full scholarships in twelve years totaling nearly $3.7 million.

The 2013-2014 class of Celia Moh Scholars are Hazel Chang, a junior interior design major at Appalachian State University; James Ellis, a junior in the industrial design program at Appalachian State University; Evan Fay, a senior furniture design major at Kendall College of Art & Design; Stacy Folker, a junior furniture design major at Kendall College of Art & Design; Casey Gloster, a junior industrial design major at Appalachian State University; Sarah Kakol, a senior home furnishings major at High Point University; Jessica Rose, a senior majoring in industrial engineering at North Carolina State University; Catherine Ruvolo, a senior studying interior design at High Point University; Danielle Souder, a North Carolina State University senior studying industrial design; and, Angela Truehill, a senior majoring in interior design at East Carolina University.