Six MIAD students awarded Alumni Thesis Scholarships

March 5, 2020 … Social innovation. Empathy. Creativity. These are themes found among six MIAD Senior Exhibition projects recently awarded a 2020 Alumni Thesis Scholarship. The scholarship directly supports fabrication and installation of the students’ work, and is funded through donations by MIAD alumni, additional donors and MIAD. Winners were chosen by a panel of alumni.

Winners of three $300 awards include:

Paulina Garcia Proposal

• Eve Berndt (Industrial Design), Benton Harbor, MI, is designing reusable food packaging to reduce waste in grocery stores.
• Paulina Garcia (Communication Design), West Chicago, IL, is creating a workbook to help children overcome the trauma of family separation due to their immigrant status.
• Ileanna Herrera (Interior Architecture and Design), Milwaukee, WI, is designing a unique workplace for an artificial intelligence company that promotes collaboration between workers and provides a community-oriented environment. 

Winners of three $200 awards include:

Berea Ames Proposal

• Berea Ames (Communication Design), Oakdale, MN, is designing a website and fabricating a clothing line to help children with sensory processing disorders.
• Emily Bowers (Illustration), Kaukauna, WI, is creating a video game concept that exemplifies duality, consequences and the complexity of morality. The main character is a convicted witch in America during the Red Scare in the 1950s.  
• Teena Wilder (New Studio Practice: Fine Arts), Sumter, SC, is creating an irrigation system and a zine to combat tokenism and martyrdom. Teena is using water as a theme to talk about the history of her life, home, body and hair care.

Because of the Stay at Home Order in effect in Wisconsin, the college is shifting the senior thesis from a traditional exhibition to a digital exhibition. We look forward to providing more updates soon. 

The exhibition is generously sponsored by BMO Harris Bank.