Commencement 2025
“I am extremely proud of how, collectively, the Class of ‘25 has embraced the school’s core values of fairness, openness, and care for others. The need for our school to foster a culture of belonging is evergreen, but perhaps even more important today as conflicts rage around the globe and many feel unease about the future,” said NYSID President David Sprouls to the crowd that gathered at NYU Skirball Center’s auditorium to witness the Class of 2025 graduate. “I’m positive you will bring the same integrity that you exhibited at the college to the design community as a whole.”
On May 21, 103 students graduated, including distance learners and those who were not able to attend in person. Degrees bestowed at Commencement included the AAS, BFA, MFA1 (professional), MFA2 (post-professional), MPSS, and MPSL.
“Since NYSID’s start, our student body has grown tremendously along with the number of alumni who count College as their academic home. We are so pleased that all of you are now part of that wonderful history as soon-to-be New York School of Interior Design alumni,” said Ellen Kravet, chairman of NYSID’s Board of Trustees.
Stellene Volandes
Two Forces in Design Share Their Wisdom
NYSID Trustee Alexa Hampton introduced the first of two commencement speakers, Stellene Volandes, editor-in-chief of Town & Country, editorial director of ELLE Decor, and author of Jewels That Made History from Rizzoli. Hampton said, “The world of design isn’t run by designers alone. It is a complex and layered ecosystem powered by clients, artists, craftspeople, manufacturers, teachers, curators, connoisseurs, dealers, technicians, as well as those in the very necessary category of design journalism. I have the pleasure of introducing an exemplar who exists at the very top of this field.”
Vollandes shared advice from her unconventional and non-linear career: “Many graduation speeches urge graduates to never give up. I’m going to suggest the opposite. I’m going to ask you to consider the possibilities that open when you do give up when you exercise the power of the pivot.” She explained, “A pivot is not merely about leaving one thing behind to start another, it’s about taking all that you have learned and continuing on a path, but maybe you turn a bit to the right, or take the unexpected left turn just ahead of you.”
David Kleinberg
Kravet introduced the second speaker, David Kleinberg, an internationally celebrated designer and principal of his eponymous firm, who was inducted into the Interior Design magazine Hall of Fame and honored with NYSID’s Albert Hadley Lifetime Achievement Award. Kleinberg was first named to Architectural Digest’s AD 100 list in 2012 and has been on ELLE Décor’s A-List since 2011. He’s been a member of NYSID’s Board of Trustees since 2017.
The advice Kleinberg shared was characterized by the humility and gratitude that has endeared him to many. “Design, at its best, is an act of service. You’re stepping into someone else’s life to help them shape it. That is a responsibility, and a privilege. But it’s also a business,” he said. “That means respecting the process—budgets, timelines, the rhythm of collaboration—and learning from the many people who will know more than you do: carpenters, framers, fabricators, electricians, antique dealers. Listen to them.”
President Sprouls seemed to take great pleasure in referring to the speakers as “Drs. Volandes and Kleinberg,” as he draped doctoral hoods for the discipline of interior design over their shoulders.
Amira Briggs (BFA)
Two Powerhouse Student Speakers
The Class of 2025 selected two speakers to represent the student body. Amira Briggs (BFA), who spoke on behalf of the undergraduates, said, “Trust yourself and know that the tough times at NYSID, when you didn’t think you were going to make it—pulling all-nighters and completing final design presentations—were not in vain. You have absorbed a great deal of information, not just how to design space, but how to receive criticism and choose the best parts of it to incorporate into your work. … You can face anything.” Carissa Kim Pintello Sundberg (MFA1), representing the graduate students, said, “Starting now, we are no longer the designers of tomorrow, but of today. It is now our role to pick up the baton, and move the industry forward. We now get to shape not only the beliefs and vision of design, but the experience of the workplace itself, and who gets to be a part of it.”
Carissa Kim Pintello Sundberg (MFA1)
Remember that Design Can Be World Changing
Before granting the 2025 Student and Faculty Achievement Awards, Ellen Fisher, NYSID’s vice president for academic affairs and dean, summed up NYSID’s belief in the potential of interior design: “I know that our collective future as a community, a country, and a world will be better because of you and the wonderful spaces and places you are going to create.”
Robert Herring Travel Prize winner Crista Fernández Taha (BFA)
2025 Student & Faculty Achievement Award Winners
The Chairman’s Award
For overall academic performance
Catriona Morgan Mary Howard (BFA)
Carmen Clara Filomena Cruz (MFA1)
Christianna Thetis Theofanopoulou (MFA2)
*MPS award winners will be named in the summer
The Ana Blanc Verna Award for Excellence in Interior Design
For exceptional creativity
Sandhya Rajendran (BFA)
The Alumni Award
For academic excellence and service to the College
Taurean M. Jones (BFA)
Carissa Kim Pintello Sundberg (MFA1)
The Robert Herring Travel Prize
A travel grant awarded on the basis of an essay and proposal
Crista Fernández Taha (BFA)
Hadley Wall Jones (MFA1)
The William Breger Faculty Achievement Award
For an outstanding faculty member nominated by peers
Edwin Zawadzki
Selected for his exceptional dedication, this year’s recipient exemplifies the values at the heart of the William Breger Faculty Achievement Award. Faculty member Joe Goldstein, a previous Breger Award winner himself, nominated this year’s recipient, Edwin Zawadzki, co-founding principal of the architectural firm In Situ Design. Since he started teaching at NYSID in 2003, "he has brought his many years of practical real-world experience to the classroom. It is this balance that distinguishes Edwin's teaching, thinking conceptually while addressing the realities of practice," Goldstein wrote in his nomination. "Whether through professional and academic collaborations and collegial working relationships, he is integrally enmeshed in the academic, professional and social fabric that is critical to creating the larger NYSID community."
More photos and videos from Commencement 2025 coming soon.