FSF x Skims Scholar, Rosa Stancil ’23, Leaves NC State with Valuable Industry Experience, Priceless Memories

By Sarah Stone

The opportunity to prepare for a career in fashion, combined with being selected as a Centennial Scholar, drew Rosa Stancil to the Wilson College of Textiles. 

“I always knew I wanted to study abroad and I knew the Centennial Scholarship would enable me to do that,” Stancil says. “Using my enrichment funds, I was able to see a lot more of Europe than I would have been able to otherwise.”

Although Stancil is graduating from the brand management and marketing program in just three years, she’s packed more into her college experience than many super seniors have. However, she’s still had time to find her community, most notably through Platform, NC State’s student-run fashion and culture magazine. She currently serves as its editorial director.

“I joined Platform my first year, and just being around so many creative students has been such a humbling and wonderful experience. It’s been such a great balance to my STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] education here at NC State to be pushed creatively by such a talented team,” she says.“That community has honestly been what I feel like I’ve learned from the most and has just been a joy to be a part of.” 

This talent for creative expression, combined with her marketing and textile education at the Wilson College, helped her land marketing and communications internships with Champion, Bene Handbags and other brands. 

She says all of these experiences helped prepare her for her most prestigious accomplishment: a Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF) x Skims Scholar. Each year, the nonprofit asks students from across the country to share feasible solutions to real challenges facing the fashion industry. FSF sends the winning students to a weekend of professional development programming in New York City. The special distinction from Kim Kardashian’s brand comes with a $10,000 scholarship. 

Tell us more about your FSF experience! What was your project? What was your favorite part of the gala?

I participated in the marketing analytics competition. For my submission, I proposed a five-year marketing strategy for J.Crew to build brand loyalty through harnessing the power of emerging digital technologies and encouraging conscious consumption. 

We got to visit the Condé Nast offices and hear from Vogue’s editors, including Anna Wintour, which was crazy. We also visited Nordstrom and heard from executives there. 

Then, at the FSF Gala, I had the opportunity to present an elevator pitch of my case study to industry leaders, as well as learn about the other scholars’ case studies. The week before, we got to take part in media training, where we learned how to present and how to give an elevator pitch. It was a really cool opportunity to learn from some big-name TV anchors and hosts.

What did you learn from your global marketing internship at Champion? 

Funny story – when I found out I had been selected for FSF, I actually sent an email to my managers at Champion and told them thank you because my internship project and their guidance prepared me so well for the application. 

During my time at Champion, I produced a full funnel marketing campaign for a product launch of men’s and women’s activewear. 

I had to do a lot of market research and collaborate with our consumer insights team. And I was able to take a lot of the things I learned from that project and apply them to develop my FSF case study.

But I think honestly, my favorite part about my internship was attending the Champion Brand Summit. I got to hear from their influencer marketing agency, their media agency, their PR agency and their advertising agency. That was just an amazing networking experience

What was your most meaningful experience from your time at NC State?

Definitely my semester studying abroad at the Lorenzo De’Medici Institute in Florence, Italy.

It’s such an empowering experience to move across the world to a new country, figure out public transportation by yourself, meet new people from different places and learn how to spend time alone. 

In one of my classes, I was the only student from the United States, so it was challenging at times to communicate. But even that was just such a good experience and something that I’m able to talk about when applying to global companies. I really expanded my global perspective,which translates so well to a global industry like fashion.

I also really loved the classes I took, especially the fashion-related courses. The professors were so amazing and right out of the industry. I took Fashion Styling, for example, and the professor had her own fashion company and styled influencers. In that class, we got to put together this project using professional models and scouted locations. I also took the History of Italian Fashion and visited the Ferragamo museum. That class made me realize I’m interested in working in luxury, and I really enjoyed learning more about the heritage of brands. 

What advice would you give to your first-year self?

Try to balance preparing for the future and career that you want with being present with enjoying your peers and the college. It’s going to go by fast.