Whitney French Design Scholarship

About Whitney French

Whitney French was a Senior Product Designer at WillowTree and an inspiration to everyone she touched. She was extraordinarily passionate about giving more women the opportunity to make an impact in digital design and supporting their education and development. After Whitney’s passing in 2017, WillowTree created an annual $5,000 scholarship in her honor that supports women in the digital user experience and design field.

About You

Everyone has a unique story, and we want to create space for you to tell it. There’s no “one size fits all” qualification list. Our scholarship is tailored to your academic goals; however, we expect our recipient to be a woman pursuing a future in digital user experience and design. We know there is always opportunity to improve gender diversity in the field of design, and we would like to provide you with a chance to jumpstart your career!

The scholarship will be applied to your university or bootcamp tuition.

To qualify, you should be a woman currently enrolled in a part-time or full-time program in Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Massachusetts, or British Columbia.

• Be a Junior or Senior registered in a design program at a college or university as of September 2023; OR
• Be registered in a design bootcamp or accelerated learning programs like General Assembly, Ironhack, Flatiron, etc. as of September 2023

What You Need to Apply

• Your resume
• Link to your digital portfolio/design samples
• A cover letter that addresses the prompt below

Cover Letter Prompt

We want to hear more about you, your goals, and how our scholarship can help you get there. So in your cover letter, please address the following:

What’s your story?

We know you’ve lived many lives before stumbling upon this application, and we want to hear about them. Tell us how these experiences impact your passion for design and how they’ve influenced your drive for success. We want to hear about what makes you an incredible creative, so brag about the design samples in your portfolio, your ideas for future projects, or whatever else feels meaningful to share.

What are your career goals?

Tell us about your design experience and what you hope to gain by pursuing this field of study. Why is this career field the right opportunity for you? Where do you see your career progressing from this point?

Please keep your cover letter to a maximum of 2 pages. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, we will be closing applications at 11:59 pm EST on April 16, 2023, and we will begin interviews following that. We can’t wait to meet you!