Five TATM Students Win Awards from Nation’s Largest Fashion Scholarship Fund

By Susan Fandel

Five NC State Wilson College of Textiles students recently were named 2018 Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF) winners. Each was awarded money toward their education expenses and given access to valuable internship opportunities.

The mission of the FSF is to advance the fashion industry by encouraging gifted and enterprising young people to pursue careers in design, merchandising, retailing and business – ensuring the industry continues to attract dedicated, capable and creative individuals. The scholarship winners were honored during the Fashion Scholarship Fund Geoffrey Beene National Scholarship Awards dinner on Jan. 9 in New York City.

All five of the winners are Fashion and Textile Management majors in the department of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management.

1. Alexis Douglas of Winston Salem, North Carolina, received $5,000.
2. Elizabeth Galanti of Herndon, Virginia, received $5,000.
3. Courtney Marcus of Charlotte, North Carolina, received $5,000.
4. Danielle Van Pelt of Gastonia, North Carolina, received $10,000. Van Pelt, who was an FSF winner last year, was one of eight finalists for the organization’s National Merit Scholarship. 
5. Olivia Weikmann of Raleigh, North Carolina, received $5,000.

The winning students participated in the FSF’s annual competition which revolves around a case study. This year’s challenge asked students to explore how the weaving together of digital technology with offline shopping can improve the performance of a fashion retailer of their choice.

This proved to be the most competitive year in the competition’s history with 540 submissions from 60 member schools. FSF has awarded scholarships to 227 applicants and the total FSF scholarship money this year is $1,232,500.