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Ababa Lorde, a senior in �鶹��Ƶ������ȫ University’s School of Fashion, won a $50,000 scholarship from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), a New York-based nonprofit that is committed to supporting the American fashion designers of the future.

Lorde, who was born in Barbados, immigrated with her family to New York before settling in Woodbridge, N.J. She was awarded one of the CFDA’s Design Scholar Awards.

According to the organization, the award “celebrates a student whose work advances ... innovative concepts such as designing for people with disabilities, adaptive fashion, inclusivity, fashion activism, or social justice.”

“CFDA remains committed to driving meaningful change,” the organization states.

Lorde, a first-generation college student, told �鶹��Ƶ������ȫ Today that she immediately called her mother after learning she had won the award.

“When I told her the news, she was freaking out, screaming over the phone,” Lorde said. “I was crying; it was very emotional.”

For her submission for the award, Lorde drew on her Barbadian heritage and found inspiration for her portfolio while attending the West Indies Day Parade in New York.

“It was just very moving for me to reconnect to my Caribbean American heritage so close and in person,” Lorde explained.

Her professors encouraged Lorde to conduct deeper research as the connection reflected who she was.

“I was watching different films, listening to music, kind of just immersing myself, going to different Caribbean American hot spots in New York and Brooklyn,” she explained.

A particular facet of her research centered upon a generation of Caribbeans who emigrated to Great Britain for work following World War II and lost their way of speaking and dressing in the traditional British society, only to rediscover their colorful heritage in clothing, music and dance several generations later.

“That’s what really inspired me because it was the movement and colors and sounds that disrupted the grayness of England at the time,” Lorde said.

The research component was her favorite part of creating her submission, Lorde said, and what she learned about music, movement and color inspired her clothing collection that went into her winning scholarship submission.

“Our students are our best ambassadors," said Mourad Krifa, Ph.D., the Margaret Clark Morgan Director of the School of Fashion, "Ababa exemplifies the excellence we strive to achieve, and we are very proud of her accomplishment.”

The scholarship money will help Lorde complete her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree without having to take on additional student loans, and will help pay the cost of materials, fabric and photo shoots for her designs.

“I want to create a short film around my concept, so definitely some of the money is going towards that,” she said.

Lorde intends to use any remaining money for graduate school, which she hopes to attend abroad.

Lorde said she selected �鶹��Ƶ������ȫ for her undergraduate education after seeing all that the fashion school and its Rockwell Hall facility had to offer. She was also impressed that the curriculum required study abroad for fashion design majors, and the idea of studying in a traditional college campus setting also appealed to her.

During her junior year, Lorde spent the fall semester at �鶹��Ƶ������ȫ’s New York City fashion program, and her spring semester studying at �鶹��Ƶ������ȫ’s Paris program.

“It was the first time I was out of the country as a grown person,” she said, “I got to see different countries in Europe, and it was amazing.”

Her experience at �鶹��Ƶ������ȫ has been “100% positive,” Lorde said.

Having spent most of her life living just outside of New York, Lorde said she didn’t know what to expect in a small city in Ohio.

“Coming here from the city, I was very wary and a little nervous. On the drive to Ohio, I actually saw farmland, real farmland for the first time, and I was like `Oh my goodness. ‘Where am I?’” she said. “But I have really grown to love Kent. It’s beautiful. There are amazing professors who have supported me through this whole thing, including Senior Lecturer Archana Mehta and Professor Joanne  Arnett. I’ve met amazing people, friends and connections.”

More than 300 students applied for CFDA scholarships; 37 finalists were selected to present their work to the 2025 CFDA Scholarship Fund selection committee in August, with the winners announced this month.

�鶹��Ƶ������ȫ students have either won or been finalists for the CFDA for the past five years.

"Since 2021, our students have placed as finalists and won CFDA scholarships,” Mehta said. “This is a testament to the dedication of the faculty mentors, as well as the talent and hard work of the students. We are incredibly proud of Ababa.”

Mehta supervises external competitions and scholarships for the fashion school. She engages students and faculty mentors, disseminates information and coordinates critiques with students and faculty mentors across five campuses: Hong Kong, Paris, Florence, Kent and New York.

Previous �鶹��Ƶ������ȫ University School of Fashion CFDA Finalists and Winners are:
2021: Dalimar Solis Ortiz, Finalist, and Jessica Lee, Finalist
2022: Farah Shahrour, $10,000
2023: Tamara Maroño Garza, $25,000
2024: Zahra Najafi, $25,000, and Brye Wheeler, Finalist

Learn more about �鶹��Ƶ������ȫ’s School of Fashion.