December 6, 2016
SCI-Arc Launches Scholarship for L.A. Public School Students
The experimental architecture school announced a new merit scholarship in an effort to re-affirm its deep connection to the city.
Merit Undergraduate Thesis Prize, Kazi Maysun & Kathleen Mejia (Instructor: Peter Testa)
Courtesy of Sci-Arc
Many design schools across the US have initiatives to engage their immediate communities. RISD’s Project Open Door, for example, aims to provide art and design workshops to underprivileged high school students in the Providence area. Another, College for Creative Studies, has its CAPS Program, which even offers grant opportunities for Detroit-based artists. But SCI-Arc, a leading school in experimental and innovative approaches to architecture, is taking community outreach a step further, offering a 5-year undergraduate scholarship to a graduating senior from a Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) school.
The scholarship is merit based: to retain the scholarship, the student must be in the top 10% of the class. But it is only offered only to applicants that have graduated from the local public school system, which serves more diverse and low-income students than the private schools of Beverly Hills or the Pacific Palisades.
Sci-Arc Director Hernan Diaz Alonso affirms that the primary concern with this scholarship is to strengthen the relationship between the school and the urban fabric of Los Angeles. The scholarship isn’t a separate application either—all students graduating from LAUSD, who complete an application to Sci-Arc, will be considered.
Applications are due Jan 15th, 2017.
