Sneha Sankar, a final year graphic design undergrad of India’s top-ranked National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, is the 2016 South Asia winner of the Helen Lansdowne Resor Scholarship (HLRS) version 2.0. The scholarship, which commemorates the first woman copywriter of the transnational advertising company J. Walter Thompson (JWT), includes a purse of $10,000 (Rs.6.6 lakh), a paid internship opportunity with a JWT office in South Asia, a JWT mentor, and a “first look” placement consideration after graduation. Instituted in 2014, the HLR Scholarship for women only, is a global programme of the New York-based JWT (estb.1864), designed to enhance the status of women in the advertising industry. The elder child of Dubai-based Narayanan Sankar, a senior manager of Elcome International Llc and Meena Sankar, a service sales executive with ETAMELCO, Middle East, Sneha, who was born in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and schooled at the Delhi Public School, Sharjah, is expectedly elated. “My application was straightforward, comprising an earnest statement of purpose (SOP), a generous recommendation from NID senior faculty Rupesh Vyas and a creative work portfolio. Apart from writing about my ambitions in my SOP, I also recounted my experience as a member of the UAE’s women’s national cricket team. I left the rest to the judges of the HLRS award,” she recounts. As winner of the South Asia scholarship, Sneha is eligible for a JWT internship in any South Asian country before or after she graduates. Her preference is to intern at the JWT office in Mumbai. “I am looking forward to making a positive contribution to Indian advertising,” she says. Sneha intends to utilise her scholarship money to sign up for a Masters degree in graphic design abroad, after graduating from NID in 2018. “NID has developed an excellent curriculum which is delivered by high-quality faculty. Based on this strong foundation, I hope to conceptualise and design effective communication campaigns — including social impact messages — that go beyond adding to clutter,” says this budding graphic design professional who is clearly set to go places. Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore)
