Scholarship Awards

Funding opportunities for current students

Explore a number of scholarships, grants, fellowships, and other funding opportunities available to current students through the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design and the College of Arts and Sciences. Applications open in September each year, with application deadlines in October. 

Application timeline

The application has closed.

Questions?

Contact us at soaaddus@iu.edu or soadgrad@iu.edu with questions.

Industry opportunities for fashion + merchandising students

Students are encouraged to apply for external funding opportunities available to them in their industries. In 2020, merchandising and fashion design students were cumulatively awarded $72,000 across two National Scholarship Competitions.

Merchandising student Annie Hope Mazzola was a nationwide top five finalist for the 2020 NRF Next Generation Scholarship, and was honored on stage at the Honors Program and awarded a $10,000 scholarship.  Photo courtesy of the NRF Foundation

The NRF Student Association provides talented students interested in retail careers with unique educational and scholarship programs, networking opportunities and access to the latest industry news and research.

As a member school, all Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design Retail Studies Organization members become NRFSA members through dues the organization pays to support this program. Benefits of students being in the NRFSA include, scholarship opportunities, discount attendance at the NRF Big Show in January and amazing education programs for NRFSA students, recognition and industry news like the “Careers Smart Brief” and “Virtual Career Fairs”. IU has been especially successful in the Scholarship Competition with students winning $10,000–$30,000 in the past four consecutive years. IU has also had students in the quarter finals of the Ray Greenly Scholarship Competition and a semi-finalist team of the Student Challenge Competition in 2016. The NRFSA has also awarded IU students each year with Rising Star awards and travel scholarships to the NRF Big Show for the NRF Student Ambassador. 

The mission of the Fashion Scholarship Fund 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 will continue to attract dedicated, capable and creative individuals. As the premier educational fashion non-profit in the United States, the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF) seeks to identify and create career opportunities for young people worldwide. They grant the single largest sum of money and total number of scholarship in the entire fashion community, supplementing financial support for scholars, offering hands-on experience with the world’s top fashion companies and most influential leaders.

As one of the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund’s member schools, Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design students compete for scholarships by completing an intensive case and then competing on the national level for $5,000 scholarships and the opportunity to travel to New York for a gala and mentoring opportunities. In January of 2017, seven students from IU won $5,000 scholarships. Of the seven, Marley Isaacson advanced to the Geoffrey Beene Scholarship and was awarded $30,000 as a top 4 national winner. Since 2005, 53 IU students have won $5,000 scholarships (totaling over $250,000) and we hold the national honor of being a YMAFS Scholar.