Students Awarded Scholarships from National Retail Foundation and YMA Fashion Scholarship Foundation

Photo courtesy of Dana Connell
Columbia students earned $27,500 in national scholarships for their fashion design, merchandising, and marketing skills.

Columbia College Chicago students recently won scholarship awards for their fashion design, merchandising, and marketing skills. Columbia’s team won scholarships from National Retail Foundation’s 2019 Student Challenge Competition, and the YMA/Fashion Scholarship Foundation (FSF) awarded Columbia students for their respective globalization of fashion individual case studies. Combined, Columbia students earned $27,500 in national scholarships.

More than 750 students competed in the YMA/Fashion Scholarship case competition. Students Cassidy Hofschulte, Rhyarna McBride, Kendall McDermott, and Andrea Menendez received $5000 each. Students were honored at the YMA/FSF Gala on January 10 in New York City.

Dozens of teams from schools across the country’s fashion, media, and arts schools competed in the NRF Student Challenge. Students were judged on their ability to connect fashion design, retail, marketing, management, social media, profitability, advertising, graphic design, and other related skills.

Columbia’s “Upgrade” for New York based retailer, STORY for The Home Depot won second place. Students Alexia Densmore, Carlos Osuna, and Kathryn Williams, and received $2,500 each. Students accepted the award at the Foundation’s gala on January 13 in New York City.

“I'm grateful for having the opportunity to compete in the NRF Student Challenge Scholarship competition,” says Williams, a junior studying Marketing. “Our team has had an abundance of support from faculty members as well as industry leaders, and for that I'm incredibly thankful.”