It’s that time of the year again! The YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund Application Deadline is quickly approaching. Every year, the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund awards 125 $5000 scholarships to those interested in pursuing careers in the fashion field. Not only do you earn money, but you also get valuable contacts. In the fashion industry, it’s all about who you know. At a meeting about the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund held on Wednesday, October 5, Angela Gugliotta, the recruiting coordinator at the Hiatt Career Center, stressed the importance of networking.
Winning the scholarship would allow you to network with a thousand influential people in the fashion industry at the FSF Geoffrey Beene National Scholarship Awards Dinner held in New York City in January. In the past FSF has set up internships for scholarship winners with participating companies such as Bloomingdales, Calvin Klein, Chloe, Coach, Lacoste, and Polo Ralph Lauren.
So who is eligible to apply? Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors at participating schools, and luckily, Brandeis is one of them! The only other requirement is a minimum GPA of 3.0
How do you apply? Students can’t apply directly to FSF, instead they must apply through their school. Brandeis has a selection committee to decide which applicants to endorse. The deadline for the Brandeis application is October 24th. The Brandeis application requires you to upload a copy of your Hiatt approved resume and to write a personal essay explaining your aspirations, experience, community service and how you will spend the scholarship money. The FSF application requires you to fill out a simple form, to write a business plan, to complete a case study, and undergo an interview. Based on the experiences of past students who have applied, the research-oriented case study takes about 20-40 hours to complete. Brandeis recommends students to complete the business case study instead of the design case study. The Brandeis applicants who won last year all completed the business case study. In addition, students are encouraged to select a mentor to help with the process. The advisors are Maura Jane Farrelly, Alice Kelikian, Detlev Suderow, and Grace Zimmerman. The FSF application is due no later than November 28th. So hurry up and get started!
Last year, all the Brandeis students who applied won the prestigious award: Ji Yun Lee’11, Abigail Katznelson’11 and Danielle Schivek’11. Schivek scored an internship with Tods, the Italian luxury designer brand. Lee now works as an assistant brand manager for fashion accessories and the menswear division at Li & Fung USA. Katznelson worked at Ross Stores as a buying intern this past summer.