By Elise Ong, May 12, 2026
Apparel Merchandising and Management student Andrea Avalos ventured into The Glasshouse in New York City March 23 to celebrate winning a $10,000 scholarship from the 2026 Fashion Scholarship Fund.
The scholarship challenges students to address current issues in the fashion industry and is meant to help fashion students nationwide, according to the FSF website.
A total of 800 students applied to the scholarship, and each was required to present a case study on cross-industry collaboration. Avalos presented hers on Stüssy, a streetwear clothing brand, and FIFA, the international soccer governing body.
“I wanted to create something that was culturally relevant,” Avalos said. “The World Cup is coming up in a couple months, and to me, growing up, there was nothing more important than the World Cup. It is really important for a lot of people too, so it has that culture value that I think make collaborations interesting.”
Avalos wanted to reach a broad audience by combining soccer fans and streetwear culture, and imagined a collaboration that wasn’t about just making money. Instead, Avalos envisioned “a collaboration for change.”
The presentation highlighted the concept of recycling plastic stadium waste from soccer games into polyester that could be used to make jerseys. According to Avalos, fulfilling the sustainability aspect was extremely important in her project.
Avalos applied over a year ago and started her presentation in summer 2025. For the entirety of summer up until October, Avalos said she worked day and night on her submission.
“I would go to a café and just work on the project,” Avalos said. “It was like my whole summer, really. It was a big-time investment. It was a lot of effort.”
Throughout the whole process, Cindy Cordoba Arroyo, an assistant professor in the AMM department and FSF Educator, acted as a mentor, according to Avalos.
From putting up the posters that led Avalos to apply, to travelling to NYC with her, Cordoba said she was there every step of the way.
“I really value the experience of applying all the knowledge of the program into the case study, as well as the perspective that Andrea took with the sustainability,” Cordoba said.
While working on her presentation, Avalos had meetings with Cordoba, who gave feedback before Avalos continued individual work. Cordoba described it as coaching the case study, which she said stood out not only because of the cultural and sustainable relevancy but also because of the effort and attention to detail she saw Avalos put in.
According to Avalos, having Cordoba as a mentor meant a lot.
“It was awesome because when you’re doing something new, you really need some guidance in order to come up with the best ideas and have a satisfactory final product,” Avalos said. “Just having Dr. Cordoba be there via email and responding to my questions and giving me feedback, I’m really grateful for that.”
Avalos and the other scholarship recipients were flown out to NYC for a few days of networking and a celebratory gala where she presented her case study.
According to Avalos, she had the opportunity to visit offices like Calvin Klein and Women’s Wear Daily magazine, meet business owners, important people in the fashion industry and even rapper Travis Scott.
“Getting to talk to professionals in the industry and getting advice from them, cause they know better than anyone else how hard it is to break into the industry,” Avalos said. “Getting their firsthand insights was extremely important, and I think that was my biggest takeaway.”
As the only student at the event from Cal Poly Pomona, Avalos said it was interesting to be in the same room as students from some of the top fashion schools such as Parsons’ School of Fashion and the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Although she said it was easy to feel discouraged after comparing herself to other schools or students, Avalos said she learned sometimes all that needs to be done to get in the room is to open the door.
“You have to open those doors for yourself,” Avalos said. “They’re not going to be open. You need to find the key and open them. That opens a whole world of more possibilities. It’s about really putting in the effort and dreaming big but also doing something to accomplish those dreams that you have. Never in a million years would I ever imagine that I would be in New York in a gala with a bunch of fashion people.”
Chitra Dabas, the AMM department chair, said this opportunity is one attainable by all students and encourages all students to follow suit in the way Avalos took that first step.
Dabas said as a mentor, she can guide and support, but it’s up to the student to open that door.
“Take advantage of the opportunities that are presented beyond the classroom,” Dabas said. “Faculty are just ready to help whoever is ready to take on those challenges.”
