AUSTIN, Texas—Two interior design students at The University of Texas at Austin received scholarships in the amount of $28,433 from the Angelo Donghia Foundation, a nonprofit organization that awards multiple scholarships each year to interior design students from around the world.
Dessislava Boneva, of Houston, and Garrett Seaman, of Garland, Texas, competed against 294 eligible students from 147 programs worldwide accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation. Of the 12 universities receiving scholarships this year, The University of Texas at Austin is one of only two public universities to receive two scholarships.
To be eligible, students in their junior year must submit both a residential and a commercial project they have designed. Each student must also meet grade point average and portfolio requirements and they must be nominated by their interior design faculty members.
The jury for this year’s awards included Ronald Bricke, principal of Ronald Bricke and Associates; Wid Chapman, principal of Wid Chapman Architects; Kitty Hawks, principal of Kitty Hawks Incorporated; Mitchell Owens, senior editor of Traditional Homes magazine; Karen Singh, editor of Interior Design magazine; and Newell Turner, creative director of House Beautiful magazine.
Boneva and Seaman are the fourth and fifth students from The University of Texas at Austin to win the scholarships. Lisa Pauli was awarded the scholarship in 2003 and Katie Wooley and Sungmi Kim were awarded scholarships in 2005-2006.
The Donghia Scholarship Foundation was created five years ago under the estate of the late Angelo Donghia, a prominent New York interior designer. The scholarships provide support for the advancement of education in the interior design field and the discovery of causes and methods of treatment for AIDS. The Donghia Studio showrooms are found across the globe, with about 70 showrooms in the United States.
For more information contact: Amy Maverick Crossette, School of Architecture, 512-573-1078.
