Thirty-nine artworks by 四虎影视 of Art and Design Illustration students were accepted into this year鈥檚 Society of Illustrators (SOI) Student Competition, representing 18% of all accepted entries.

This year鈥檚 competition drew over 4,550 submissions from schools across the country, with the jury selecting just 216 works. Students submitted their strongest, most creative, and original artworks under the guidance of their professors, including faculty Gary Barker, Dominic Avant, Regan Dunnick, Jon Foster, David Gardner, Stewart Leith, Michael Marsicano, Jenny Medved, Sean Murray, Octavio Perez, Skylar Smith, Dominick Saponaro, and Joe Thiel.

Trinidad Monteagudo Jackson 鈥�27, Illustration, received the $1,000 Walt Reed Scholarship Award for听The Oval Portrait, created in Procreate.

鈥淲e could not be happier,鈥� said Illustration Department Head Christina Hess. 鈥淎 job well done to the students and faculty.鈥�

Each year, the Society of Illustrators recognizes outstanding student work from around the world with an exhibition, catalog, reception, and scholarship awards. The competition gives students the opportunity to gain the attention of publishers, designers, art directors, curators, and art buyers.

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See all the winning illustrations

Tessa Wijaya, House by the Sea

Penelope Strauss, The Doomscroller

Alli Place, The New Yorker Cover

Ashley Chang, Lore

Ray Rendon, Autumnal Allies

Cassandra Leal, Mr. Tyson Was Hit by a Star

Daniel Montifar, Two Worlds Meet

Emily Gase, Dreamer

Valeria Branciforte, What Lurks Behind

Alisa Nikishin, Flora & Fauna

Margo Drew, Self Portrait

Xinxin Liu, Chinese Folklore

Stephon Ducasse, Midday Chaise

Leah Stansbury, Celebration at the Menoa Tree

Sierra Schumann, Western Wonderland

Makaela Strifer, Time is a Fleeting Creature

Emelia Feldman, Swamp Serpent

Mili Walton, Cow (Girl)

Tessa Wijaya, House by the Sea

Layna Malave, Veggie Wolf

Janya Choudhary, Woven in the Narrative

Finn Wilson, Shrimp Tempura

Petra Kishi Chow, The Auction

Sophia Andrade, The Norns

Jasper Gonzalez, Untitled (Praying Woman)

Emmaleah Vickers, Noah Kahan Album Cover

Donovan Corcoran, Punch-Out

Lola Burrill, Runaway

Kadin Distefano, The Wild Ones

Zachary Pamintuan, Boy and Fish

Grace Johnson, Payphone

Botong Sun, Shadow & Light

Niyathi Sudhakar, Forget Me Not

Kyra Sturdivant, Color of a Memory

Olivia Franklin, Dare to Be Stupid

Daniella Barone, Roomates

Sam Tanelli, Underground Show

Xioanny Santiago Ortiz, Watership Down

Ursula Yang, Wear Your Attitude

Diego de la Rosa, Song of Achilles

Eli Peterson, Ornithology

Paige Kidkul, Don鈥檛 Wake The Sleeping Dragon

Gia Webb, Untitled (Dinosaur in Flight)

Sky Chandler, Save The Bears!

Faye Levy, The White Rabbit

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As a Fulbright ETA, Liller would be placed in a Laotian school to assist local English teachers and serve as a cultural ambassador, fostering mutual understanding between the United States and Laos at the community level.

Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided over 400,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals the opportunity to study, teach, and conduct research abroad, including 62 Nobel Laureates and 93 Pulitzer Prize winners. More than 2,000 Fulbright U.S. Students pursue graduate study, research, or English teaching in schools abroad each year. Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, implemented in the United States by the Institute of International Education.

Students interested in applying for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program should contact Fulbright Program Adviser Dr. Genevieve Hill-Thomas at ghilltho@c.ringling.edu. For more information, visit .

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Students from all 13 of Ringling’s majors took part in the evening event, which drew faculty, families, and members of the Sarasota community to campus for a celebration of the Class of 2026’s achievements.

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Now in its third iteration, GENESIS is a student-led fashion show and cross-disciplinary collaboration that draws from virtually every major on campus. This year’s show, Woven in Time, followed a soul’s journey through three acts: Birth, Battle, and The Unknown, guided by the mythological Fates. The theme shaped everything from the garments on the runway to the motion graphics pulsing behind them to the dress code for guests.

“I was drawn to the contrast between love and hate, the softness and the hardness of those images, and how that reflects the battles humans face today鈥攑ersonally and on a global scale,” said Lindelwa Ntshakala 鈥�28, Visual Studies, and this year’s GENESIS President and Creative Director.

“Bringing the Fates into the story introduced an existential crisis, because it links to the idea that we’re all born into something we didn’t choose.”

Twenty-one designers presented 30 original garments, each the result of months of experimentation, sewing, fittings, refinement, and more sewing. 

Outside the venue, guests were welcomed with a photo booth, live caricature artists, and GENESIS-branded swag before making their way inside to a show that opened with booming narration guiding the audience into the world of the Fates.

The production was entirely student-built. Motion design students created the visuals projected across the LED wall. Set design, sound, hair and makeup, photography, and film documentation were each led by a dedicated student department head. Lily Bean ’26, Visual Studies, Head of Designers, described their role as part creative collaborator, part coordinator, working with each designer to tailor their looks to the theme while managing fittings and keeping communication flowing between teams.

“It’s really cool to see all the looks and talk to everybody during the process,” Bean said.

This year also saw a new layer of support added to the production. Matt Myers, who teaches costume construction in Entertainment Design, led a workshop for GENESIS designers, not on design itself, but on the practical challenge of getting from sketch to garment. “There’s a lot of creativity not just in the design, but in the fabrication,” Myers noted. “And those are actually two very different jobs professionally.” For students working without a fashion major to draw from, that kind of hands-on guidance made a real difference.

Central to that process was a new resource that didn’t exist in previous years: a sewing lab in Hammond Studios. For GENESIS designers, the space became a second home鈥攁 place to work through construction challenges, test materials, and turn their sketches into reality. Myers had been working toward something like this for years, advocating for a dedicated fabrication space on campus long before one existed. The opening of Hammond Studios made it possible. “The building opening opened a door to having this space,” he said. 

GENESIS grew out of an earlier student fashion show called Fresco and has expanded year over year in scale, production value, and campus reach. This year’s leadership team logged close to a year and a half of planning by the time of the event. 

GENESIS 2026 鈥� Core Team
Lindelwa Ntshakala 鈥� President & Creative Director
Timo Kisyeri 鈥� Vice President & Brand Executive
Amanda Godines 鈥� Vice President & Project Manager
Mobtagha Bejaoui 鈥� Co-Creative Director
Samantha Balikowa 鈥� Outreach Coordinator
Tia Kassim 鈥� Lead Set Designer
Lily Bean 鈥� Head of Designers
Abigail Atwell 鈥� Head of Motion Design
Martina Belanche Castillo 鈥� Head of Graphic Design
Allegra Bortoni 鈥� Head of Film
Savannah Carroll 鈥� Head of Photography
Meline Dupont 鈥� Head of Hair & Makeup
Lyra Kolesar 鈥� Head of Models
Jetta Gerdts 鈥� Head of Models
Zeta Bengoechea 鈥� Campaign Strategist

For those who were there, the result spoke for itself: a runway show that felt less like a student event and more like a fully realized production, the kind that leaves you wondering what they’ll do next year.

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What does the professional design world actually look like? This spring break, 12 Graphic Design students from 四虎影视 of Art and Design traveled to New York City to learn firsthand by visiting major in-house design teams and independent studios across the city.

Organized and led by full-time Graphic Design Faculty member, Lisa Jayne Willard, the group of three sophomores, five juniors, and three seniors鈥攖oured organizations including The New York Times, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Lublin Design Center, 2×4, Collins, Pentagram, Red Antler, and Squarespace. The itinerary moved quickly: visits to The New York Times and Cooper Hewitt kicked things off, followed by a full day of studio tours in Brooklyn at Lublin Design Center, 2×4, and Collins. Students then met with members of the Pentagram team, including designers affiliated with the Italian designer Giorgia Lupi’s group, and later toured Barbarian, where Ringling alum Nancy Nystr枚m 鈥�15, Graphic and Interactive Communications, shared insights into her professional journey. The final day wrapped up at Red Antler and Squarespace, where alum Nicole Gavrilles 鈥�12, Fine Arts, led a tour and lecture. Between visits, students had time to explore the city independently and shared a group dinner at John’s Pizzeria.

One of the biggest takeaways was that while many studios appear to do similar work, they are fundamentally different in their approach. Each had its own area of focus鈥攂randing, digital experiences, strategy鈥攁nd its own way of solving problems. Some emphasized research and data-driven design; others leaned into conceptual thinking or visual experimentation. As one designer put it during a visit, “There isn’t one path to a solution. What matters is how you think your way there.”

Work culture proved equally defining. Some studios ran on constant collaboration, with teams continuously building on each other’s ideas. Others allowed for independent exploration before converging. The atmosphere, team dynamics, and even the physical spaces all contributed to each studio’s creative identity, a reminder that culture isn’t just a backdrop, it’s a driving force.

Perhaps the most reassuring realization was how closely professional practice mirrors what students are already learning at 四虎影视. Research-driven design, concept development, and critique came up repeatedly across studios. The transition from school to industry may feel like a leap, but this trip showed the foundation is already being built in the classroom.

The professionals themselves reinforced this, with many sharing that their own paths weren’t linear, and that persistence, adaptability, and growth matter as much as technical skill. “Your work should show how you think, not just what you can make,” one speaker noted. For students preparing to enter the field, the message was clear: the skills are relevant, the path is achievable, and there is room to grow into an individual voice as a designer.

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Art Deco takes center stage at Sarasota Art Museum in Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration. During one of the Curator’s Tour events at the Museum, Senior Curator Rangsook Yoon, Ph.D., led a group of visitors through an in-depth exploration of one of the early 20th century’s most influential art movements.

This exhibition is pretty much a graphic designer’s dream. The centerpiece is a collection of 100 rare promotional posters from the 1920s and 30s, essentially the early days of modern advertising. The posters are large-scale and cover a wide range of products and experiences, from drinks and cars to luxury travel and sporting events. What’s interesting is that several of the brands featured are still around today: Bouillon Cube, Twinings Tea, Chrysler, and even the London Underground.

I met with a small group of Museum visitors in the second-floor gallery. It was here that we began our journey into the evolution of Art Deco.

Alongside the posters, furniture pieces from the same period on loan from the Wolfsonian Museum at Florida International University in Miami help bring the early 20th century to life. One standout is a round wood and glass table inspired by airplane propeller blades, that also doubles as magazine storage鈥攁 pretty clever design solution. There’s also a curved orange bench that was originally installed in the Cincinnati Union Terminal, one of the best surviving examples of American Art Deco architecture. It’s hard to walk past without stopping to look.

The gallery also features a solid range of other objects from the era, including original poster ads, tea sets, emblems, and toy replicas of vintage aircraft.

One of the more unexpected highlights, though, is the Prohibition era barware. Designed to look like silos, bowling pins, airplanes, and car radiators, these pieces were created specifically to hide illegal alcohol, and they’re an example of just how creative people can get when under pressure.

The Art Deco movement drew heavily from the industrialism of its era, weaving machine-age aesthetics directly into its artistic identity. Its connections to the development of cars, planes, and other vehicles mark the height of the industrial period in the Americas and Western Europe.

As my visit extended into the late afternoon, I had the chance to speak with another visitor on the tour, a pharmacy student who had come to the Museum with his family. Despite his STEM pursuits, he grew up surrounded by artists and has spent his life so far learning to appreciate art, even if not creating it.

My tour mate reflected on the unique impact of seeing the work in person. “You can see pictures online, but they don’t really capture the scale of it,” he said.

His favorite piece was the Normandie poster by A.M. Cassandre (1935), which he called “a really powerful image, scary, almost.” As someone drawn to ships and trains, the sweeping scale of Cassandre’s ocean liner spoke directly to him.

The exhibition鈥檚 appeal spreads through all walks of life, welcoming artists and art enthusiasts alike.

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RaMell Ross, the director behind the Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-nominated historical drama Nickel Boys, brought his unique approach to cinema to 四虎影视. Ross spent a day with students through a series of events across campus. Meeting with multiple groups throughout the day, Ross generously engaged students on a series of topics.

The Morganroth Auditorium buzzed with excitement from both students and faculty. Ross鈥攁 critically acclaimed artist, writer, director, and Brown University professor, and a distinctive voice in contemporary cinema鈥攕pent the day on campus as the featured guest of the 41st Annual Visiting Art Historian Lecture Series, co-hosted by the Liberal Arts and Film Departments.

The day鈥檚 events included meeting with students on the Film Soundstages throughout the day, giving students the opportunity to sit down with the filmmaker, who chatted candidly about filmmaking, his process, and life. In the afternoon, his film Nickel Boys was screened in the Morganroth Auditorium, followed by a talk and Q&A session.

As an artist, Ross deliberately centers Black experience and perspective in his work. His path to cinema was non-linear. Before becoming a filmmaker, Ross played professional basketball for a team in Ireland鈥檚 SuperLeague North Division. Following his basketball career in Ireland, he returned to the United States to teach, a role he continues as an associate professor in the Visual Arts Department at Brown University. He has had numerous art and photography exhibitions.

His documentary debut, Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018), earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature, along with a Special Jury Award at Sundance and a Peabody Award.

He then made the leap to narrative filmmaking with Nickel Boys, adapted from Colson Whitehead鈥檚 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which received Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay nominations at the 97th Academy Awards.

Nickel Boys tells the story of two Black teenagers at an abusive Florida reform school during the Jim Crow era, inspired by the real-life horrors of the Dozier School for Boys, informed by the real-life testimonials gathered by Whitehead for the novel. What sets the film apart is its radical formal approach: shot entirely from the first-person point of view of its two protagonists, Ross鈥檚 concept of 鈥渟entient perspective鈥� or 鈥淏lack subjectivity鈥� asks audiences not to observe these young men鈥檚 lives, but to live inside them.

For students who spent the day with Ross, the visit felt like more than an inspiring lecture. Jayde Dauley, Film Senior and Black Student Union President, who also helped give Ross a tour of the film department鈥檚 facilities and showcased Black history in the surrounding area, reflected on the significance of the visit. 鈥淎s a film senior, I was ecstatic at the opportunity to meet and talk with RaMell Ross. Being able to hold conversation and ask questions about his life and work was exciting and entirely welcomed by my peers and I.鈥�

鈥淎s a filmmaker myself, I found it helpful to receive advice from an active filmmaker in industry whose work is intentional and cultured,鈥� Dauley shared.

Daniel Pacheco, who organized the recording of the lecture and Q&A and had the chance to speak with Ross afterwards, was struck by both the filmmaker鈥檚 generosity of spirit and the precision of his artistic thinking. 鈥淚 felt as if my consciousness expanded just listening to him. He鈥檚 not only a true artist in every sense of the word, but also a scholar and one of the most inspiring filmmakers I鈥檝e had the privilege of talking to,鈥� Pacheco shared. 鈥淟earning about his views on cinema and his own approach to art has had a profound impact on me, and I think it鈥檚 already changed my trajectory as an artist.鈥� One line in particular stayed with him: Ross鈥檚 observation that as an artist, 鈥測ou鈥檙e always trying to make something smarter than yourself.鈥�

鈥淚t was one of the best experiences I鈥檝e had at Ringling by far,鈥� Pacheco said. 鈥淚鈥檓 so grateful for Hector Sotomayor and all the people responsible for putting this together.鈥�

The Visiting Art Historian Lecture Series is now in its 41st year, continuing its mission of bringing transformative creative voices to campus.

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Race, who also received a total of four Gold ADDYs, earned her Best in Show recognition for Between Us, an infographic iPad application that visualizes data on loneliness with interconnected personal stories. She also received a Judge鈥檚 Choice award for Two Wheels @Houston, a campaign to promote bicycling as a lower-stress alternative to traffic-heavy commutes.

The other two Judge鈥檚 Choice awards went to Nathan Kipka 鈥�27, Motion Design and Brallan Ramirez 鈥�27, Graphic Design.

In total, 四虎影视 Graphic Design students took home 20 Gold Awards, one Best in Show, and two Judge鈥檚 Choice. Motion Design students won 55 Gold Awards, 12 Silver, and one Judge鈥檚 Choice. Film Students won five Gold Awards and one Silver Award.

The local ADDYs are the first step in a three-tier national competition presented by the American Advertising Federation (AAF). These winners can go on to compete in the district round, and district winners can then compete for a national ADDY Award.

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What is MIT Reality Hack?

MIT Reality Hack is an international XR (extended reality) hackathon held on MIT’s campus that brings together students, engineers, designers, researchers, musicians, and artists to build immersive experiences from scratch in under 72 hours. Teams form largely through networking, which means participants have to walk into a room full of strangers and figure out how to build something meaningful together鈥攆ast.

This year’s event ran January 22鈥�26, 2026, but Mother Nature had other plans: Winter Storm Fern forced the closing ceremony to go virtual. Despite the disruption, Ringling’s crew didn’t skip a beat.

The Ringling Crew

Seven members of the college made the trip:

• Martin Murphy 鈥� VRD department head, attending as a judge
• Justin Gast 鈥� VRD faculty, attending as a mentor
• Vida Villanueva 鈥� 4th year VRD Student, Reality Hack Scholar
• Hyesoo Koh 鈥� 4th year VRD Student
• Linda He 鈥� 4th year VRD Student
• Jimmy Tong 鈥� 4th Year VRD Student
• Natasha Patel 鈥� 3rd Year VRD Student

Junior Ang Barilla, a VRD Tech Tutor, also made the trip as a volunteer.

The students’ attendance was made possible through the generosity of Drs. Joel and Gail Morganroth, whose financial support ensured that cost wasn’t a barrier to participation.

The Projects

The Ringling students went in different directions with their hacks. Their projects ranged from a personal AI companion called Power Pet to apps exploring social issues, called SafeSight and Sunbeam.

But it was JazzCasters that took home hardware.

JazzCasters鈥攁 music-driven, hand-tracking XR experience built in Unity for Meta Quest 3鈥攅arned the Meta sponsor track award for Best Implementation of Hand Tracking on Meta Quest.

Vida Villanueva 鈥�26, Virtual Reality Development, served as the project’s lead artist, creating 3D assets, visuals, and UI. Her interdisciplinary team included a software engineer, project manager, audio specialist, and hardware engineer鈥攁 collaboration she described as one of the most meaningful parts of the whole experience.

“What stood out most to me was the diversity of skill sets and perspectives within my team and across the hackathon as a whole,” Villanueva said. “Our team included people with backgrounds I wouldn’t normally have the chance to collaborate with in a classroom setting, and that variety made the project stronger.”

Villanueva attended as a Reality Hack Scholar, a program designed to expand access and lower financial barriers for participants from diverse backgrounds. As President of Ringling’s VR Club, she also made it a point to actively recruit other students to apply.

“While the award was exciting, it really felt like a celebration of teamwork, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the environment MIT Reality Hack creates to support experimentation and inclusion,” she said.

For the faculty who made the trip, the experience was just as validating.

Virtual Reality Development faculty member Justin Gast called it “an incredible experience,” noting that the opportunity to network with so many like-minded professionals was “inspirational and a joy.” He was also struck by how differently each student approached the challenge鈥攁 sign of genuine creative range.

Game Art and Virtual Reality Development Department Head Marty Murphy described what the weekend meant for the program as a whole.

“MIT Reality Hack was a powerful confidence check for me as a department head and a clear signal that we have arrived as an experiential technology major,” Murphy said. “Even amid the challenges of Winter Storm Fern, our students held their own alongside teams from MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and USC, often as the only designers in the room.”

He added: “They engaged confidently, brought a strong design perspective into highly technical conversations, and ultimately proved they can compete and win at the highest level.”

Ringling students showed up, showed out, and showed the broader XR world that great design thinking belongs at every table鈥攊ncluding the most competitive ones.

As Villanueva put it: “MIT Reality Hack was not just about building a project鈥攊t was about learning from others, forming lasting connections, and seeing how communities like Ringling’s fit into the broader XR ecosystem.”

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Throughout the three-day event, Destefano attended a number of talks and panels with notable professionals in the children鈥檚 book industry. Outside of the conference, she also visited the New York Public Library鈥檚 100^th anniversary exhibition for The New Yorker and the Society of Illustrators鈥� 45^th Annual Original Art Show and the organization鈥檚 Edward Gorey exhibition.

鈥淏eing surrounded by so much art and so many artists I鈥檝e admired for years was incredibly motivating,鈥� she said.

鈥淎ttending the SCBWI Winter Conference not only strengthened my confidence as an illustrator but also left me feeling refreshed, inspired, and excited to begin my thesis work.鈥�

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