Student Merit Awards

In an effort to encourage, reward and celebrate excellence in industrial design education, IDSA student chapters nominate their best and brightest for the Student Chapter  Merit Award Competition. Each student chapter holds a competition, juried by professional designers, to select one winner who will represent their school at their District Conference. The winner from each school presents at their District Conference, and a jury of professional designers select the National Student Merit Award winner for each district. Each year, the five National Student Merit winners are invited to display their work at the National Conference. This elevated recognition serves to connect undergraduate design students with IDSA's national scope while honoring them in a national arena for academic design achievement.

2012 National Winners

• Southern District, Reid Schlegel, Virginia Tech
• Western District, Haley Toelle, California College of the Arts
• Mideast District, Emmanuel Carrillo, University of Cincinnati
• Northeast District, Yasemin Uyar, Pratt Institute
• Midwest District, Ryan Geraghty, University of Notre Dame

2011 National Winners

• Southern District, Leo Chen, University of Houston
• Western District, Janna Budge, Brigham Young University
• Mideast District, Trevis Kurz, The Ohio State University
• Northeast District, David Fastino, Wentworth
• Midwest District, John Traub, University of Notre Dame

2010 National Winners

• Southern District: Arvin Arbadilla, University of Houston
• Western District: Steven Madsen, Brigham Young University
• Mideast District: Mike Harmon, College for Creative Studies
• Northeast District: Victor Shapira, Massachusetts College of Art
• Midwest District: Teddy Lu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2009 National Winners

• Southern District: Chris Owens, North Carolina State University
• Western District: Lavion Gibson, Arizona State University
• Mideast District: Dan Rowe, Cleveland Institute of Art
• Northeast District: Liana Kalushner, University of the Arts
• Midwest District: Kaitlyn Benoit, The University of Notre Dame

2008 National Winners

• Southern District: Andrew Valentine, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
• Western District: Gabriel Lamb, California College of the Arts
• Mideast District: Rick Hagee, Columbus College of Art and Design
• Northeast District: Paul Sukphisit, Massachusetts College of Art
• Midwest District: Ashley Ceniceros, The University of Notre Dame

2007 National Winners

• Southern District: Alfredo Aponte, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Western District: Soyun Kim, Academy of Art University
• Mideast District: Matthew Swinton, Cleveland Institute of Art
• Northeast District: Dan Bolinski, Rochester Institute of Technology
• Midwest District: Mansour Ourasanah, The University of Notre Dame 

2006 National Winners

• Southern District: Arthur Wu, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Western District: Russell Henning, San Jose State University
• Mideast District: Mandy Stehouwer, Cleveland Institute of Art
• Northeast District: Mark Palmer, Rochester Institute of Technology
• Midwest District: Nick Poteracki, Purdue University

2005 National Winners

• Southern District: Kurt Rampton, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Western District: Nate Lau, Art Center College of Design
• Mideast District: Michel Alvarez, Cleveland Institute of Art
• Northeast District: Evan Gant, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
• Midwest District: Toshihiro Fujimura, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign