Five Nancy Short Scholarships Awarded to Top NYSID Students

Nancy Short

The New York School of Interior Design is delighted to announce five student recipients of Nancy Short Scholarships for the Spring 2021 semester.

These merit-based scholarships come from the endowed Nancy Short Award Fund generously supported by William P. Short III in memory of his late wife, Nancy Jean Fulop Short, who was a student at the college from 2008 to 2010.

The awardees are:

• Elaine Gahagan (MFA)

• Alexis George (BFA)

• Cal Nugent (MFA)

• Aaron Schechter (BFA)

• Brooke Wilson (MFA)

The Nancy Short Award Fund was established in 2015 with the intent of awarding a graduating student who, like Nancy, made a career change from the legal profession. Given there were no current students who met that criteria since 2016, Mr. Short and NYSID President David Sprouls determined the best course of action would be to create five scholarships for the spring 2021 semester from excess funds, two BFA and three MFA, based on the highest cumulative GPA of a full-time student with a year of work completed. This generous award covered all tuition and fees for the Spring 2021 semester. In Bill Short’s words, “I believe that endowments should be spent within a generation of their donation. It’s important to me that the good realized today from my gifts will have a large, meaningful and immediate impact on the lives of these designers. I believe their success benefits us all.”

Nancy Short came to NYSID after a 30-year career in securities law—from legal publishing, to practice as a corporate and securities attorney, to teaching corporate finance and securities law. She was awarded a J.D. degree from The University of Toledo College of Law, where she was first in her class, and an LL.M. degree from Yale Law School. At the New York School of Interior Design, she pursued an associate degree in interior design with a goal of working in the interior design industry. Like professionals in many fields who come to NYSID to change careers, Nancy Short found her studies intellectually challenging, exhilarating, emotionally rewarding and looked forward to a new profession. We are delighted to offer these scholarships in her name.