Columbia Central

Nena Ivon Honorary Endowed Fashion Award

for continuing undergraduate students

The Nena Ivon Honorary Endowed Fashion Award was established to assist in defraying the costs of tuition for Fashion Studies and Fashion Design students who are at the junior or senior level.

Deadline to Apply: February 01, 2025

• How to Apply

  Visit Internal Scholarships and click on APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIPS to access the College-Wide Undergraduate Scholarship Application. Only complete scholarship applications submitted by the deadline will be reviewed by the scholarship committee. 
  
  Please follow all directions carefully. Students must submit the following materials to make a complete Nena Ivon Honorary Endowed Fashion Award application. There are three parts to the application:

  
  PART 1: ESSAY

  Provide a one-page essay that tells the committee something about you, your work in Fashion Studies at Columbia, and how this scholarship will assist you in achieving your goals of working in the fashion industry.

  Your essay must be double-spaced and must include your name and MyColumbia ID number in the upper right-hand corner of the page. Please upload your response in .pdf, .doc, or .docx format.
  
  
  PART 2: CREATIVE SAMPLES

  Upload five samples of your design work and/or a business plan(s.)

  Please upload your samples as ONE document in .doc, .docx, or .pdf format. 
  
  
  PART 3: LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION

  One letter of recommendation is required from a Columbia faculty member who is familiar with your academic achievement or accomplishment in your major.

  For your convenience, the online application will send an email notification directly to the person you've chosen to complete your recommendation. Please be prepared with the email address of your recommender. 

  Remember to contact your recommenders directly before providing their information on the application. Since this application is part of the larger College-Wide Undergraduate Scholarship application, also note the specific scholarship(s) for which they will be recommending you. Be sure to give recommenders as much time as possible to write letters. Requests made at the last minute are often difficult to fulfill by the deadline.
  
  

  Access online applications through Internal Scholarships.

• About Nena Ivon
  Ms. Nena Ivon grew up in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood and in Evanston, Illinois. When she was 16 she took a summer job with Saks Fifth Avenue in downtown Chicago selling sportswear. The unexpected death of her father the following year changed her plans to attend college and she continued to work for Saks. At age 17 she was promoted to assistant fashion director and eight years later she became the director of fashion and special events, the job she held for the next forty years. 
  
  She served on numerous industry, civic, and charitable boards, including: The Fashion Group of Chicago; the Chicago Apparel Industry Board; Chicago Historical Society's Costume Collection Committee; Children’s Memorial Hospital; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Grant Park Concert Society; and the Lincoln Park and Brookfield zoos.
• Scholarship Terms
  • Application must be submitted by February 1, 2025 (11:59 pm) for review by the committee
  • Previous amount of this one-year scholarship was up to $2,700, awarded half in Fall and half in Spring
  • Recipients who graduate in Fall 2025 may receive the full scholarship amount in Fall 2025
  • Scholarship is applied toward tuition only
  • Students’ scholarships that are applied toward tuition may not exceed the amount of their tuition costs
  • Recipients must maintain full-time, undergraduate enrollment during the 2025-26 academic year
  • Recipients must have submitted all outstanding documents to Columbia Central before the scholarship can be disbursed. Students can review missing documents in the MyColumbia portal under MyFinancials
  • Scholarship may be used toward a study abroad program through one of Columbia's student exchange programs, excluding Summer sessions. Please note: Recipients who enroll in an independent study abroad program will forfeit their scholarship during the semester spent abroad
  • The rules and regulations governing other sources of financial aid (federal, state, institutional and other grants, gifts, or loans) will apply
  • Columbia College Chicago reserves the right to withhold the scholarship in any year in which, at the sole discretion of the scholarship committee, suitable candidates cannot be found among applicants

IMPORTANT DATES