Scholarships + 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.

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 programs. In particular merchandising and fashion design students are eligible to apply for two national scholarship competitions connected to the fashion and retail industries. Eskenazi and our programs have relationships with both the National Retail Federation (NRF and NRF Foundation) and the Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF). These organizations support students with case study competitions and other competitive programs, and our faculty actively mentor Eskenazi students in completing these projects.

https://nrffoundation.org/campus/scholarships

https://www.fashionscholarshipfund.org

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 past years. There are several scholarship opportunities for students to participate in at in individual level or as a group. 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 Fashion Scholarship Fund is the fashion industry’s foremost fashion-oriented education and workforce development nonprofit organization. The FSF works directly with the country's most talented young students and awards over $1.9 million each year in scholarships to help these students succeed in all sectors of the industry including design and product development, merchandising, marketing, and business strategy. The FSF also provides scholars with a wide range of internship and career opportunities, mentorship, networking, professional development, and unprecedented access to the industry's most influential leaders and companies.

As one of the Fashion Scholarship Fund’s member schools, IU Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design students vie for scholarships by completing an intensive case study, competing on the national level with students from 75 other member schools for $10,000 scholarships and the opportunity to travel to New York for a gala and mentoring opportunities. Since 2005, almost 90 IU students have received scholarships totaling nearly $500,000. FSF case studies are typically released in the spring and due in October.

https://www.fashionscholarshipfund.org/fsf-case-study-scholarship