High school seniors who want to go to college to study fashion but can’t manage the expenses have a chance to solve that problem thanks to a scholarship competition being conducted by The Art Institutes, which counts a local school in its network of 40 campuses nationwide.
Full-tuition scholarships will be awarded to top national finishers in two categories of the 4th Annual Passion for Fashion Competition. Winners in both categories will also get an all-expenses-paid trip to New York for Fashion Week in February 2009, as well as a “meet and greet” at Seventeen Magazine’s offices, and lunch with a key staff member of the publication.
The competition is open to students currently in, or preparing to enter, their senior years in high school throughout the U.S. and Canada. The two categories in the competition are Fashion Design, and Fashion Marketing & Merchandising and Retail Management.
The full tuition scholarship awarded to the winners will apply to The Art Institutes campus where the student entered the competition. The competition also provides scholarships of $5,000 and $4,000, respectively, to national second- and third-place finishers. Local first place winners will each receive a $3,000 tuition scholarship and then move on to the national competition.
The Art Insitute's local campus—The Art Institute of California-Hollywood, located in the Koreatown district west of Downtown, and formerly known as California Design College—will take part in the competition. Teachers and administrators at the facility on Wilshire Boulevard said that they plan to help prospective students prepare for the competition during workshops scheduled to start September 13.
Eligibility requires that all students who enter must be set to graduate high school in 2009, have a grade point average of 2.0 or better, write a short essay describing their interest in fashion, and complete an “Entry & Release” form. Students competing in the Fashion Design category must also submit a finished, originally designed eveningwear garment and process book. Students competing in the Fashion Marketing & Merchandising and Retail Management category must create a product or plan involving a garment.
Bruce E. Dempsey, who serves as vice president and academic affairs specialist for The Art Institutes, said the Passion for Fashion Competition has seen the quality of the participants improve steadily over the past four years.
“We have seen the caliber and maturity of the entries into the competition increase every year,”Dempsey said, adding that “many students see a career in this industry within their reach.”
The deadline for entries is November 21, 2008, and more details are available at www.artinstitutes.edu/pr.aspx?ID=p4f091 on the Internet. Call (213) 251-3636 for more information on the September 13 workshop at the Art Institute of California-Hollywood campus.
