MIAD seniors receive 2025 Alumni Senior Thesis Awards

Thanks to the generosity of alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the college, the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) will award $7,085 to 44 seniors to directly support the fabrication and installation of their senior exhibition capstone projects. Through the application process, students submit plans and sketches for their final project, as well as a budget for materials. Winners were selected by a panel of 51 MIAD alumni with experience in fine art and design career fields.

Digital and traditional innovations meet in MIAD’s 2025 Senior Exhibition, running April 11 – May 10, 2025. The exhibition celebrates works of MIAD’s graduating class of emerging creative professionals representing all of MIAD’s Bachelor of Fine Arts majors, programs and minors. Explore our galleries and meet the class of 2025. Graduating students will be present on Friday, April 11, 5 – 9 p.m. to discuss their projects in person. The event is free and open to the public. Learn more at miad.edu/seniorexhibition.

The 2025 MIAD Alumni Senior Thesis Award recipients (in alphabetical order) and the working titles of their works are:

Sydney Bledsoe (Illustration), Steep & Sleuth presents: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Zoe Burkett (Product Design), Ten-Ova
Christian Corral (Communication Design), ComicUS!
Dylan Olive Dornfeld (Fine Art + New Studio Practice), Ornamental Connections
Isabel Enders (Illustration with Animation Track), More Than Just Soup!
Eleri Extence (Illustration), The Eddystone Light
Julia Flock (Illustration), The Cardboard Kingdom of Boxdom Wood
Ariana Fontanez (Interior Architecture and Design), Dett Elm Living
Lauren Freitag (Illustration), Let’s Make: Halo Halo
Melody Frias (Illustration with Animation Track), Strudel & Croissant’s Perfect Recipe
Eloisa Gloria (Illustration), Grimm Stories: Feminist Fiction
Mara Howes (Communication Design), Between Us
Emma Jenkins (Communication Design), Rowan – Your Period, Your Power
Kai Kilgore (Illustration), Tabby Paks
Rhiannon Lammert (Communication Design), Era Placeable
Michael Laurito (Fine Art + New Studio Practice), The In-between
Sophia Lefew (Illustration), The Speed of Gender: Empowering Women in Motorsports
Ryleigh Leon (Communication Design), Co-Pal
Kalle Leyden (Communication Design), Mygiene
Frankie Mallerdino (Communication Design), cultivata: grow better together
McKenna Martin (Product Design), Hyacinth: Home Water Birth Sound Therapy
Bella Mikkelson (Illustration), Life in a Flash
Chelsea Mody (Interior Architecture and Design), Ambercrest Cabins- Resort cabins on Beaver Island
Phoebe Nelson (Illustration), La Mere Brazier: The Mother of French Gastronomy
Brenda Olayo (Illustration), Dulces Sueños
Keergan Olynick (Illustration), Built Fur Battle
Tatiana Osburn (Fine Art + New Studio Practice), Untitled
Cidney Owen (Fine Art + New Studio Practice), Volume I A Knights Encyclopedia
Luci Padilla (Illustration), Kronosaurus Museum Model
Lily Patenaude (Communication Design), Outset
Liam Prendergast (Illustration), Havre de la Nature
Megan Ramirez (Interior Architecture and Design), The Sentinel Apartments
Walt Reid (Illustration), Heist on Cloud Keep
Pax Robinson (Illustration), West Coast Wizards
Hannah Samoy (Fine Art + New Studio Practice), Balikbayan
AJ Schramek (Illustration with Animation Track), Life is a Drag!
Ava Seberg (Illustration with Animation Track), Sunny’s Forever Home
Trent Stuefen (Communication Design), Terratus
Noah Teague (Communication Design), Return
Grace Umek (Fine Art + New Studio Practice), Bird Theatre
Izzy Washkowiak (Illustration with Animation Track), The Extended Findings of Eleanor Fiorin
Madi Weglarz (Fine Art + New Studio Practice), Harbingers of the Technocene
Halle West (Illustration), Future Rejects Pinball
Sadie Willemon (Illustration), Wisconsin Fossils