Spotlight on AIGA DC Continuum Scholarship Winners and Proceeds from 2010 Fellow Award Event

Spotlight on Scholarship Winners
AIGA DC has contributed to the education of five students since launching the Continuum Fund in 2007. Here are some updates on our scholarship recipients:

Joseph Cabato
(NVCC Tom Suzuki Scholarship Winner)
While maintaining summa cum laude status, Cabato earned a total of three associate degrees from Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC): Communication Design; Communication Design/Interactive Design; and Fine Arts/Photography. In his ‘downtime’ Cabato redesigned NVCC’s logo and layout for their newspaper, NVCC Fortnightly. Forging ahead, Cabato has been accepted to begin this Fall at American University’s School of Communication for their MFA program: Film and Electronic Media. He looks forward to working on fictional narratives, short-form videos, animation and documentaries.

Alfredo Ramirez
(NVCC Tom Suzuki Scholarship Winner)
Since this scholarship allowed Ramirez to focus solely on school, he admits that he began ‘living and breathing design.’ In addition to excelling in classes, Ramirez received NVCC’s “Best in Interactive” award. He also joined the NVCC Studio, a student-run, donation-based organization that creates designed pieces for local or non-profit organizations and supports scholarship funds for current and future students. Looking ahead, Ramirez has begun taking classes for web and interactive design and plans on completing his remaining classes for an associates degree in the near future.

Sarah Machicado
(AIGA DC Continuum Scholarship Winner – 2009)
During fall semester 2009, Sarah participated on a project through an advanced object design course taught by Inna Alesina and partnered with John Hopkins Children ARE Safe (CARES) Mobile Safety Center to solve the issue of child related accidents that occur in common Baltimore households. In addition, Sarah worked on poster awareness campaign called “It’s All Connected” to illustrate how people’s actions or choices can affect themselves, the community and the environment. Her poster was selected to be displayed in Baltimore’s MTA subway stations. The AIGA DC Continuum Fund made it possible for Sarah to attend a study abroad program with Temple University to La Paz, Bolivia this past summer.

Huong Le
(AIGA DC Continuum Scholarship Winner – 2010)
Huong Le is a student at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore and part of MICA’s Design Coalition, dedicated to helping the citizens of East Baltimore find resources to help sustain services for their community. She works directly with the Men and Families Center to re-strategize their brand identity so they can develop more funding to help those in need. Art education and design thinking have encouraged Huong to pursue her passions. She plans to continue working with design organizations to strategize development for low-income communities like East Baltimore.

Alexis Lovely
(AIGA DC Continuum Scholarship Winner – 2010)
When Alexis looks at a blank canvas, screen or image, the first thing she sees is the potential it has to be something more. She sees a beautiful work of art in the making, or the endless possibilities it has to be an inspiring piece of work through color, a serious message or eye-catching phenomenon. Alexis is freshman in the graphic design program at Howard University and is determined to have others feel an emotion unique to them with anything she designs.

Proceeds from 2010 Fellow Award Event
AIGA DC is excited to report that just under $700.00 was raised at our October 6th Fellow Award Event, which honored Tamera Lawrence and Rodney Williams. 80% of the proceeds from this event were donated to the AIGA DC Continuum Design Scholarship in both of our Fellows’ honor. Thanks to everyone who attended and contributed to the cause of design education.

How You Can Become Involved
If you would like more information about AIGA DC's Continuum Fund Scholarship or have questions about donating to AIGA DC's Continuum Fund, please email continuum@aigadc.org or visit www.aigadc.org/continuum.

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Carolyn Belefski
Special Projects Coordinator, AIGA DC