What It Means to Create Access to NYSID’s Semester Abroad in Florence

For emerging interior designers, whose job it is to study how different people live and create interiors that help humans feel and function better, travel study is essential training. The New York School of Interior Design offers a unique, design-specific Travel Study Program tailored to the needs of the College’s student body, which is a blend of traditional-aged college students and career changers. For undergraduates who want the full study abroad semester experience, NYSID offers a program in Florence, Italy, in partnership with the Santa Reparata International School of Art (SRISA). NYSID also offers students in every degree program the chance to take 10-day to two-week travel courses to destinations around the world over winter and summer breaks.

Whether they are age 20 or 40, many NYSID students have to work their way through school in order to pursue the career of their dreams, and have little to spare for the additional costs of Study Abroad. “When we set out to create this array of design-specific Study Abroad programs for our students, we understood we had to build a fund to make Travel Study accessible to as many students as possible,” says David Sprouls, president of NYSID. “Without the support of our funders, NYSID Study Abroad would not be the success it has become.” 

In Spring 2025, five students participated in NYSID’s Study Abroad Semester in Florence. All received either a full or partial scholarship. NYSID students were selected on the basis of two qualifying essays in their application, merit, and financial need. Two generous donors underwrote full and partial scholarships this year. Scholarship recipients who have just returned from the program share their experiences here. 

The Power of an Immersive Education 

Mariely Parra (BFA) is a second-year, 22-year-old New Yorker of Dominican heritage who works full time as a custom closet designer. Though she lives in New York, she has taken most of her NYSID courses online, so that she could juggle the demands of her job and her studies. When she learned of the Travel Study Scholarships available for the Study Abroad Semester in Florence, she saw a rare opportunity to focus all of her energies on the study of design for a semester, and she applied. 

Mariely Parra (BFA) at Doge’s Palace in Venice, Italy

NYSID’s Study Abroad Semester in Florence allows students to take in-person studios with an accompanying NYSID instructor; electives with the partner institution, SRISA; and a range of required courses online with NYSID. This year, faculty member Warren Ashworth accompanied the five students on the Florence program, teaching in-person studios. Ashworth’s studio environment is truly unique, because he teaches multiple studio courses, simultaneously, in the same classroom. Parra says, “The academic experience was amazing. My Residential (Design) I studio class with Warren was beyond description. His knowledge of architecture and design inspires you and opens a whole new world of Italian architecture, design, and art.  My classmates had different studio classes, so you got the points of view from people at different points in their academic journey, and that helped with my designs.” 

Parra also loved her SRISA electives— Italian, Discovering Florence, and the History of Italian Fashion. Asked which elective was her favorite, she said, “They were all my favorites, because I was there to learn about the culture, and each helped me understand it in a different way.”

Rendering of Pianta Piano Primo project by Mariely Parra (BFA)

While the academics were strong, Parra felt her experiences beyond the classroom were the most transformative.  She says, “It was being able to go to the places I had learned about in courses like Historical Styles, to appreciate them on a deeper level, that changed me the most as a designer.” Parra went on a guided trip to Venice with SRISA, but it was her exploration of Scarpa's Castelvecchio in Verona and Gaudí’s Casa Batllò, in Barcelona, that left the biggest impression. She says, “When you go to a place like Castelvecchio, it's dramatic, it's an experience, and this taught me something about the designer I want to be. I want to create experiences that stay with people." She adds, “The scholarship allowed me to fully focus on design for the first time in my life, so I am very grateful.”       

Haruko Utsuki in Tuscany, Italy

From Distance Learning to a Semester Abroad in Florence  

Haruko Utsuki (BFA), a student in NYSID’s online BFA program, is a Canadian citizen based in Toronto. She took part in NYSID’s semester abroad in Florence, Italy, to experience in-person study for the first time. Utsuki spent decades working as a corporate translator and the assistant to the president of Honda Canada as she prepared to put her children through college. When she started in NYSID’s distance learning BFA in 2023, she was still working full-time in a 9-to-5 job, so she required the flexibility of part-time, online learning. She never thought studying abroad would be possible.

Utsuki continued working full-time as she studied until she saw an email from NYSID’s Office of Academic Affairs announcing the merit- and-need-based scholarship opportunity for the study abroad semester in Florence. She had always felt an affinity with Italian design, because she was born in Japan, and is drawn to the combination of the traditional and contemporary in design. When she heard that she had received the scholarship, she took it as a sign, resigned from her job, and decided to commit to a future in interior design, the profession she had always dreamed of. She enrolled full-time in the BFA program and travelled to Italy.   

Rendering of Renovation of Sant'Orsola Convent project by Haruko Utsuki (BFA)

During her semester in Florence, Utsuki took an in-person Residential Design II studio with faculty member Warren Ashworth, who challenged her to design an apartment in the footprint of the Sant‘Orsola Convent constructed in the 14th century, which the class visited. Says Utsuki, “Studying in person with Mr. Ashworth and getting to know him well has been great. He shared many of his experiences as an architect and interior designer with us, and this enriched the course.” She adds, “I took an elective in History of Italian Design with a local SRISA historian and instructor. It was amazing because I heard the history of Italian political struggles while seeing how design mirrors the way a country changes.”  

Utsuki’s daughter, a graphic designer, recently visited her mother in Italy, and they went together to Milan Design Week, also known as Salone del Mobile Milano. Utsuki says, “Milan is a design capital of the world and to see the entire city celebrate design and showcase new materials and inspiration. . .this really shook my world as a designer. What an incredible thing it was to share it with my daughter, who inspires me as a fellow designer.”

She adds, “The combination of studying online, and then studying abroad in Florence, has developed me as a designer in a very positive way. Seeing the different ways people live makes me think about having a solid reason for every design choice I make. I question why I might want to apply this style, object or color, and how it relates to history and culture. This has made me a better designer.”   

Inspiration at the Intersection of Ancient and Modern

Xinrou Qiu (BFA) at Museo di Palazzo Grimani in Venice

Xinrou Qiu (BFA), who is finishing her third year and a travel-study scholarship recipient, says of the Study Abroad Semester, “The most incredible thing about this program is that you get to experience design in person, in three dimensions, instead of in a text book or in pictures.” 

Qiu says that a particularly impactful experience for her was the day Warren Ashworth took them to Sant’Orsola Convent, constructed in the 14th century and later used as a tobacco factory. Ashworth challenged them to create their studio project in the footprint of this real historical site. Qiu took Contract Design II, a hospitality design studio, with Ashworth, but each student was taking a different studio yet working with the same site, bringing a unique perspective. Says Qiu, “Our professor, Warren, took us on a site visit, and from there, we began designing from scratch—drawing inspiration from living in Italy and working within this meaningful historic context.”

One of her SRISA electives was History of Contemporary Art. She says, “I’ve always been interested in classical architecture, so I was surprised to find I was just as inspired by modern and contemporary art and design in Italy. In this elective, my very passionate teacher taught us about Abstract Art, Dada, Pop Art, and this was so critical to my development.”

In Venice and Verona, Qiu experienced the interiors of her favorite Italian architect, Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978), whose work had a huge influence on her studio project. She says, “I was first introduced to Scarpa’s work in my Modern Architecture class and was immediately drawn to his museum renovation projects in Verona and later his minimalist and Buddhist designs in Venice. Scarpa’s ability to blend modernism with traditional craftsmanship and Japanese influences—using materials like concrete, marble, wood, and water—along with his meticulous attention to detail and poetic spatial compositions, deeply resonated with me.”

Rendering of Aesop Hotel project by Xinrou Qiu (BFA)

Qiu’s final Contract Design II project, is a concept hotel for the Australian luxury skin and hair care brand Aesop. In it, it’s easy to see the layering of many eras of Italian design tradition, and the influence of regional design. “It was so much fun to play with traditional Italian elements - the gardens, columns, and frescoes. I don’t think I could have produced this project in New York,” she says. “Living in Italy and being surrounded by historic architecture has deepened my appreciation for preservation and inspired me to thoughtfully integrate modern elements into traditional settings to create spaces that are both meaningful and functional.” 

About NYSID’s Travel Study Fund 

NYSID’s Travel Study Fund makes study abroad and travel study in the US possible for students who otherwise could not afford it. The fund provides partial and full scholarships to the College’s Study Abroad Semester in Florence; 10-day to two-week travel study courses in destinations such as Chicago, Mexico City, and Mumbai, and grants for independent travel study. Scholarship applications from this fund are open to all students with demonstrated financial need who are in good academic standing, whether enrolled in an online or in-person degree program.

To discuss a donation to the Travel Study Fund or underwriting a scholarship for Study Abroad, reach out to Joy Cooper, NYSID’s Director of Development, at giving@nysid.edu or make a donation and designate “Scholarships - Travel” HERE.

NYSID will send out an announcement detailing Study Abroad in the late summer. It will include directions on how to apply for scholarships to the Spring 2026 Study Abroad Semester. Interested students should reach out to the Office of Academic Affairs for more information at academicaffairs@nysid.edu.