We are excited to receive your application and look forward to learning about your interest in design! This written application represents Phase 1 of our scholarship selection process.
Before beginning, please review our criteria:
- Major: Architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, industrial design, graphic design, illustration, animation, urban design, city planning
- Are under-represented in design and have financial need for additional scholarship funding
- Demonstrate high potential in chosen academic / career path
- Grew up in, attend / attended school in, or otherwise have ties to the San Francisco Bay Area or California
- Attended at least 2 years of high school in the U.S.
- No more than 1 year of college so far (you should be a rising college freshman or sophomore). Exception: this year, current sophomores (rising juniors) at California College for the Arts are eligible given potential disruption in education.
Successful applications tend to:
- Include a range of project types and work that shows the artistic/design process. This might include sketches, drafts, prototypes, revisions, or other examples that demonstrate how an idea evolved over time. Work created in classes or through personal exploration is equally welcome.
- Help us see the connections between your visual work (across one or more media) and your personal interests, experiences, or relationship to art and design. We want to understand how you think about the creative process and why your work matters to you.
- Demonstrate clear financial need. Most prior recipients have had a FAFSA Estimated Family Contribution between $0 and $10,000, or have experienced comparable financial hardship.
Please note: applicants are not expected to have had access to specialized design programs, equipment, or coursework. Creativity, curiosity, and personal motivation to pursue a career in design is more important than formal training or access to particular resources.
We recommend drafting your responses in a Word document or Google doc and copying these into this application form when you are ready to submit. AI tools may be used for presentation purposes only (for example, placing a designed object into an environment). AI may not be used to create core design components or to generate written responses.
Deadline for Phase 1: April 15, 2026 at 5:59pm Pacific Time
Phase 2 is a design challenge that will be sent to selected students at 9am PST on Thursday, April 16, 2026. It will require no more than 6 hours and will be due on Saturday, April 18, at 12pm PST.