Although Lehigh does not have a formal fashion major program, there are options for individuals who want to work in the fashion industry after graduation.
One is the Fashion Scholarship Fund.
Four undergraduate Lehigh students won a $7,500 scholarship award this semester after competing in the Fashion Scholarship Fund Case Study.
Every year, the Fashion Scholarship Fund awards over $1 million in scholarships to students from its 70 member schools, according to its website.
Nevena Koukova, a marketing professor, has served as the Fashion Scholarship Fund’s advisor for the past six years.
According to Koukova, the Fashion Scholarship Fund is a nonprofit founded by top fashion labels and shops to encourage college students to pursue careers in the fashion sector.
“They are looking for the talent on the design side and the business side,” Koukova said.
When Lehigh University joined the Fashion prize Fund in 2007, the prize was mostly given to design students. However, Koukova stated that they have now expanded to include business students in order to improve competition participation.
Emma Flinchbaugh, ’24, one of this year’s winners, said she learned about the scholarship opportunity through the marketing department. Despite her lack of academic involvement in fashion, she saw the fund as a means to hone her marketing talents.
“When I heard about the scholarship, it sounded like a really cool opportunity to work on a really big project and learn a lot about marketing analytics, as well as what research needed to go into a project at this scale,” Flinchbaugh said.
Participants choose to do their case study in one of the competition’s four categories: marketing analytics, supply chain, merchandising, or design and product development.
Within each of those categories, students are given problems to solve for a fashion-based company of their choice.
Flinchbaugh’s case study was in the marketing analytics category.
“I focused on fashion brand Warby Parker and how they could use AI to build a stronger Gen Z consumer base,” she said. “I picked this brand because I noticed it wasn’t done by previous case study winners, so I wanted to do something different.”
Alyssa Albano, ‘24, another one of this year’s winners, heard about the fund during a marketing club meeting.
Her case study was based in implementing NFTs at Lululemon.
“I thought this was a great idea to increase brand loyalty and customer retention,” Albano said. “NFTs are a new and exciting marketing tactic.”
Koukova said the fund is more than just a scholarship, it is a “lifelong mentoring and support group” that provides many learning, mentoring and hiring opportunities.
According to the Fashion Scholarship Fund’s website, 100% of scholarship recipients were placed in internships or jobs at partnered fashion companies in 2022.
“There is definitely a huge network in the scholarship,” Albano said. “When you win the scholarship, there are a bunch of industry professionals to talk to. I feel comfortable going into the future knowing that I am in this network of amazing people that want to help.”
After winners are announced, a gala is hosted in New York City to honor the recipients.
Koukova said the gala is the Fashion Scholarship Fund’s signature event and its main fundraiser for the next year’s scholarship. She said celebrities are invited, and there is a unique chance offered to scholarship winners to visit fashion companies, take part in a talent acquisition show and talk to job recruiters.
Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour was one of the speakers at this year’s gala. Albano said the winners were able to tour the Vogue office in New York.
“It was an awesome experience,” Albano said. “I feel like I was in shock for the week afterwards. They did so much, there were so many industry professionals there. It was exactly what I wanted to be doing at that moment.”
Marketing major Rehan Naeem, ’23, and business major Kimiko Quayle, ‘25, were the other two Lehigh recipients of the scholarship.
Since Koukova began advising in 2016, there have been 19 Lehigh scholarship recipients.
“I am very pleased with the outcome,” Koukova said. “Our students systematically and increasingly succeed in this competition.”
She said sophomore, junior and senior students can apply for the scholarship, regardless of their major.
The case study prompt for the 2024 competition relates to environment and sustainability. The deadline for submissions is in October 2023.
