CHICAGO —The IIDA Foundation and IA Interior Architects (IA) are pleased to announce the 2023 recipients of the IA Interior Architects Diversity in Design Scholarship supporting and elevating students that represent diverse voices and perspectives in interior design.

“Across our industry, it’s crucial to continue addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion from education into leadership,” said IIDA Foundation Chair Tara Headley, IIDA. “We’re honored to work with partners like IA who are dedicated to these fundamental issues and ready to support young minds as they drive us all towards a better industry.”

The scholarship fund was established as part of a five-year partnership between the IIDA Foundation and IA to enrich and advance the interior design profession by recognizing outstanding students.

“The scholarship is awarded to graduate and undergraduate minority students who exhibit incredible vision for the future of design,” said IA Co-CEO/President, Tom Powers, IIDA. “Selecting recipients is rewardingly challenging as the applicants are all very talented with unique aspirations related to how meaningful design is and should be to our everyday lives.”

To apply, students who enrolled in a design or architecture program are tasked with writing a 500-word essay challenging the design industry and education system to make actual change. This year, the essays focused on two critical issues impacting students and the design industry moving forward: Sustainability and EDI. The students addressed the connection between these two topics and how that connection affects the exploration of solutions to build a solid foundation for the next generation. All essays were reviewed by select leadership of the IIDA Foundation Board of Trustees and IA and are juried anonymously.

Bella Oliver, who studies Environmental Design at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, was awarded this year’s first-place scholarship of $5,000 for their essay, “Equity Is Sustainability.”

Thomas Jefferson University’s Sidnia Garcia, Student IIDA, who is studying for a Masters of Science in Sustainable Design, received the second-place award of $3,000 for their essay, “The Best Thing the World Has Are the Many Worlds the World Has.”

There were four additional $500 scholarship awards granted for essays that received honorable mentions; the recipients include Aliyah Murph, studying Architecture at the University of Cincinnati, for their essay, “Diverse Perspectives and Sustainability in Design”; Shurouq Aljammal, Student IIDA, studying for a Masters of Interior Design at the New York School of Interior Design, for their essay “Equity Increases Perspective Through Lived Experience”; Calvin Ma, studying for a Masters in Interior Architecture at Cal Poly Pomona/UCLA Extension, for their essay, “Setting the Stage”; and Susan Hsin, studying Interior Architecture and Design at Colorado State University, for their essay, “The Importance of Place-Based Sustainability and Community Building.”

All IA Diversity in Design Scholarship recipients will be featured in the IIDA newsletters “Design Matters” and “QUAD” as well as celebrated during the IIDA Annual Meeting hosted in Chicago in June. The recipients will additionally be promoted to 400,000+ social media followers and on IIDA.org, where the complete winning essays are available.

As part of the recognition, scholarship recipients will be included in a celebration this summer 2023 with IA’s leadership team where they can engage in dialogue directly with practicing designers and architects. Details on the festivities will be announced later in the spring.

For more information about the IA Diversity in Design Scholarship, please contact foundation@IIDA.org.