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Think and Do the Extraordinary

Think and Do the Extraordinary: The Campaign for NC State is a five-year comprehensive campaign that aims to raise $1.6 billion to propel NC State forward as a university that makes a difference, where faculty and students think beyond boundaries and do the extraordinary in our collective quest to solve the grand challenges of a complicated world.

The Think and Do the Extraordinary campaign is unprecedented in its depth and breadth and will benefit every one of the university’s colleges and programs. For the College of Design, this campaign is about securing much-needed resources to build capacity and strength through increased access and opportunity for our students and support for our world-class faculty, research, education, and outreach programs.

Extraordinary Opportunity

Our goal is to increase support for endowed scholarships and fellowships across all of our academic programs, to open doors to an NC State design education to deserving students.

We are grateful for the generous donors who have already established scholarships and fellowships at the College of Design. This academic year the College awarded 50 scholarships and fellowships to 60 of our 870 students. These awards provided extraordinary opportunities for the recipients, enabling them to pursue their design educational dreams.

Extraordinary Purpose

Our goal is to secure funds to establish several endowed professorships throughout the College enabling us to successfully attract and maintain outstanding faculty, as well as provide endowed faculty research awards to encourage and assist in the costs for research, travel for conferences, and funding for research assistants.

Faculty support through endowed positions is one of the most important tools for any college or university in recruiting and retaining top talent. To date, the College of Design is the only college at NC State that does not have a single endowed professorship.

Extraordinary Experience

Our goal is to increase endowments for the extraordinary experiences that enhance students’ design education. A few of the opportunities for support include study abroad scholarships to help ease the burden on students as they engage in this extraordinary international learning experience; building an endowment to support our Art2Wear program; and establishing a Design/Build Studio Fund to underwrite the costs to transform students’ innovative design solutions from concept to reality.

Because the practice of design requires broad thinking and an open, informed perspective on the world, the College of Design infuses our educational programs with a range of extraordinary learning experiences that extend beyond the classroom – and beyond borders. All Design undergraduates participate in a study abroad experience and unique hands-on opportunities.

Extraordinary Leadership

Our goal is to increase annual participation and levels of giving for the Designlife Fund to provide a robust and growing base of support needed to propel the College forward.

Donors to the Designlife Fund believe that design is a powerful force that can help solve the challenges of our state, nation, and the world. Designlife support provides discretionary funds for the dean to distribute to all areas of the College, from student projects, student organizations, and programmatic support for external outreach, communications, and alumni engagement. These discretionary dollars allow us to transform the ordinary design education into an extraordinary experience.

An Experience Worth Supporting

Art2Wear is a student-organized runway show that presents fashion, costume, and wearable sculpture created by students of NC State Design.

Watch the video 
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