Scholarships

WJA Student Scholarship Winners for 2009 Announced!

The WJA scholarship committee awarded $20,000 in scholarships to eleven students from ten different schools across the nation.  This year we had 64 applicants from 34 different schools.  We offered two different scholarships: the traditional Designer scholarship that is based on slide entries of finished pieces, and the Non-designer category, which was essay, based.  This new Non-designer category was targeted towards students training to become bench jewelers, appraisers, gemologists, retailers and more.

For more information about WJA Scholarships, please contact Lisa Slovis Mandel.

Designer Category Winners:

$4,000 June Herman Scholarship
Anastasia Azure - Rhode Island School of Design
Azure’s work is extremely mature and inventive.  She is using this scholarship to return to school as a graduate student.  “The opportunity to utilize state-of-the-art technology, to evolve construction processes, and to investigate materials extensively will further develop original art that is conceptually relevant to my ideals and interpretations of our world.”  “Azure represents a new type of student.  Already well versed in the field, she is demonstrating that there is always more to learn.  We look forward to seeing how graduate school changes her present body of work.” says Lisa Slovis Mandel, National Scholarship Chairperson.

$3,000 Scholarship
Davina Romansky– Rhode Island School of Design
Romansky has had the great opportunity to travel the world gleaning information from great metalsmiths along the way.  Her designs are innovative, classic, and exciting. She is also the recipient of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award of Tiffany & Co., the Saul Bell Design Award - First Place Hollowware and the MJSA  Foundation Award.

$2,500 Scholarship
Mara Friedland – East Carolina University
Friedland’s Designs are inspired by closely looking at flowers and other botanical forms. Through silver fabrication and enameling, she brings her pieces to life.  She hopes to contribute to the jewelry world after graduation by teaching at the high school level and in smaller workshops.

$2,000 Scholarship
Jung Eun Change  – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

$1,250 Scholarship
Jungwha Kim – Long Beach City College
Carrie Metheny – University of Iowa

$1,000 Scholarships
Claire Hackley – Virginia Commonwealth University
Allison Ulmer – State University of New York at New Paltz
Lucia Perluck – Temple University – Tyler School of Art

    
Non-Designer Category Winners:

$1,000 Scholarship
Yuko Hayashi – GIA
Maresha Robinson - GIA

Read the press release.
Read about last year's winners.