2024 Outstanding Students
School of Design
Ellen Stevenot Communication Design / Bachelor of Science in Design
Ellen is a praiseworthy communication design student committed to design research, innovation, and practice. She is self-motivated, sensitive, thoughtful, and vigorously embraces a challenge. Driven by her intellectual curiosity and sensitivity to functional design strategy, Ellen’s work ethic is extraordinary. She is an amiable individual who is an inspiration to her peers and a positive role model for students in the communication design program. Ellen is the definitive model of the next generation of design professionals. (Graphis New Talent Awards 2023 - Silver)
Sydney Theiss Fashion Design / Bachelor of Science in Design
Sydney models exemplary talent, representing high levels of success as a dedicated student in the Fashion Design program. Throughout her time at DAAP, Sydney continually demonstrated exceptional effort in research, development, and realization. Her work ethic is admirable – willing to explore, refine, and improve her craft and design perspective in pursuit of outstanding outcomes. Sydney has earned high praise from her instructors and peers, proving her status as an exceptional student, peer, and designer.
Joseph Curtsinger Industrial Design / Bachelor of Science in Design
Joe is a standout student from the UC-ID class of 2024. Joe consistently demonstrates strong industrial design skills across his projects such as sketching, prototyping, and rendering. He has a positively contributive overall attitude and dedicates thoughtful and rigorous effort toward his projects. He has a great rapport with the faculty and his fellow students and has been a valuable member of the UC ID culture. (1st Runner Up at UC's Cincinnati's Center For Entrepreneurship 2024)
Urvi Prabhu Design / Master of Design
Urvi has a talent that blends creativity and communication. She is passionate about typographic design for helping non-native language learning through symbol-sound association as well as brand communication. She applies her talent in art and cultural sensitivity to bringing people with different perspectives together. Her leadership through creative practice is demonstrated in her current activities as the President of the Design Graduate Student Association at UC.
School of Architecture & Interior Design
Cooper Kadish Architecture / Bachelor of Science in Architecture
Cooper is an exceptional student who has consistently displayed a high level of rigor, dedication, and design talent throughout his time in the architecture program. Driven by his commitment to design, Cooper’s studio investigations have consistently displayed a high quality of exploration, depth of detail and overall development. Challenging himself to new adventures, he participated in the UC Study Abroad Exchange program, spending a semester in Stuttgart, Germany at the Hochschule fur Technik, immersing himself in a new culture and life changing experience.
Lydia Blues Interior Design / Bachelor of Science in Interior Design
Lydia has excellent visual and verbal strengths, crafting a provocative, poetic, and compelling capstone project that reimagines abandoned oil rigs off the Atlantic coastal region into self-sustaining aquatic educations research facilities. She engages with the world and design through a lens of curiosity, always asking meaningful and thoughtful questions. Lydia is a natural leader, projecting a collaborative and confident demeanor, often spearheading design dialogue with her peers and elevating the work of others around her.
Gavin Sharp Architecture / Master of Architecture
Gavin has consistently performed at the highest level throughout his time in the graduate program as well as serving as an excellent teaching GA. His thesis research on pre-fabrication techniques has been thorough and the design proposals he is developing are mindful of the material constraints, site conditions, and delivery systems while offering compelling imagery for the next generation of housing. Gavin exemplifies the research values championed by the school and the professionalism expected of our students.
May Khalife Architecture / Doctor of Philosophy
May’s research focuses on the role that the social sciences played in the adoption of Modern Movement architecture in the United Kingdom and the United States. Her dissertation establishes that many of the most prominent actors in the revisionist, interdisciplinary work of the Post-War period, were women. Long underappreciated, these designers questioned the focus on purity of form and urban reconstruction espoused by many architectural institutions and instead championed contextual forms of infill development.
School of Art
Riley Haag Art History / Bachelor of Art History
Riley is a hard-working student with enthusiasm for collaboration, community outreach, and university involvement. Her recent endeavors include participating in art history outreach in local high schools, partnering with an Art Therapy professor conducting pedagogical research, working with a community organization to support older artists in exhibiting their work, and presenting at the annual DAAPcares showcase. Riley will also graduate with a Museum Studies Certificate and has completed two internships, gaining curatorial and archival experience.
Esra Kanisicak Fine Arts / Bachelor of Fine Arts
Esra joined our program with a hunger to synthesize her background in scuba diving and a passion for the health of our planet. She has been a positive role model to her peers, demonstrating how to bring a well-rounded life into the studio. Her experimentation guided her through an impressive evolution into being a widely skilled interdisciplinary artist. Esra creates sophisticated forms and images that balance a visceral quality, aesthetic and informed messages.
Devin Hatcher Art Education / Master of Arts
Devin explored reflective educational research during his time in the program. His work as an artist-educator at East High School in the Cincinnati Public School system created a novel and model reflective curriculum for teachers. Through his self-reflective practice, his research demonstrated that a critical pedagogy aimed at tolerance and understanding of student contexts leads to fewer disciplinary issues in the art and design classroom.
Andy Demczuk Fine Arts / Master of Fine Arts
While it is common for students to experiment with their studio practices, much rarer is the full-fledged dedication to research in three significant academic areas. Andy came to UC with a command of creative writing and dove headfirst into a practice that was informed by but not limited to his previous work. Andy’s practice deals with sonic components, animation, and theory through a painting practice rooted in experimentations with sound, motion, and visualizing electronic compositions.
School of Planning
Jack Schaefer Horticulture / Bachelor of Science
Jack has excelled both professionally and academically. He was awarded the International Plant Propagators Society student research award. He developed a project to propagate and introduce an unknown native plant to the local horticultural community. He presented his results at an international conference in Canada. Jack is pursuing graduate school in Biology. He currently works at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden where he is the head arborist. Jack's career goal is to help individuals and local communities through public horticulture outreach.
Sophia Ferries-Rowe Urban Planning / Bachelor of Urban Planning
Sophia has demonstrated critical thinking, thoughtfulness, and care throughout their education. They have consistently approached new topics with curiosity and enthusiasm, ultimately producing work of many kinds at a professional level. They have also undertaken co-ops in a variety of fields, from design to research to audio communications. Beyond this core work, they have shown ingenuity and drive in founding a group that does pop-up clothing swaps to serve fellow students and promote the cause of sustainability.
Sarah Day Urban Studies / Bachelor of Science
Sarah has embraced the multi-disciplinary and exploratory nature of Urban Studies. Her capstone pulls together her interests in transportation, community engagement, and history to imagine a Cincinnati-area mass transit system that would appeal to suburban riders and motivate them to leave their cars at home. She is highly organized and approaches problems with systems and structures in mind. Sarah is generous with her time and ideas and always willing to spend time supporting her fellow students.
Xavier Yozwiak Community Planning / Master of Community Planning
Xavier is an exceptionally hardworking and productive scholar with an extraordinary academic record. He made key contributions to a GIS-based-research/public service project for prioritizing replacement of lead water lines in Cincinnati using technical efficiency and social justice criterion. He presented results at a statewide conference. His master’s thesis examining impacts of these replacements on home values has garnered attention from scholars and water professionals and is expected to be published in a scholarly journal.
Jessica Frazier Landscape Architecture / Master of Landscape Architecture
Jessica continues to demonstrate the model of an outstanding student by not only her exceptional academic achievement, but also by her unique abilities to communicate with others by her demonstration of service as a DAAP Ambassador, her active service within the landscape architecture profession through the student chapter of ASLA, and her positive and sympathetic demeanor that invites conversation. Her exceptional listening and collaboration skills make her a leader in DAAP and the MLA program.
Yue Wu Regional Development Planning / Doctor of Philosophy
Yue combines design skills, statistical modelling, policy analysis, dedication, and compassion to her research in the area of heritage and culture in economic development. Her dissertation creatively pushed the understanding of impacts of national and state heritage designations and is now being used by the State of Pennsylvania. Additionally, her exemplary skills, creativity and knowledge have led her to excel in teaching, consulting, and professional networking. She will no doubt continue to represent DAAP and SOP well as a scholar and practitioner.