Quan Zhou

2008John Paul Miller Scholarship Winner

Quan Zhou, a 4th year Industrial Design major was awarded the 2008 John Paul Miller Scholarship from the Cleveland Arts Prize.  Ms. Zhou is a terrific student who earlier this year had won a prize in an international design competition, and she interned in 2008 at IDEO in Boston as a product designer and with Nike in Portland, Oregon in the  summer of 2007.

At Nike, she designed a running shoe meant to encourage teenage girls to run. In an article from the Institute's LINK magazine she says, "I had to do research, pick users, find a problem they face and design a solution.  We have a strong foundation in this from CIA; so I knew that process." Further in the article, 'Her mentors at Nike pushed her to provide a thoughtful rationale for each of her ideas. "It was tough but it definitely helped me to come up with better designs," she said. 

Quan is an only child that was born and raised in China. She considers her parents her heroes because they taught her so much. Before graduating from high school she placed in the top one percent on China’s sketch test to apply to art school.

After graduating from high school, she was admitted into the top Chinese art school majoring in stage design. During this time her dad came to the United States and applied for immigration status. She was to follow in 6 months, so she went to Beijing to study English instead of art school. She had to wait to get her Visa because of September 11, 2001 which resulted in tighter immigration standards.

During this time, besides studying English, she worked as a sales woman promoting learning programs in English for children. This work experience taught her how to observe the consumer, and sell products while being confident, brave and using a strategy.   This was a difficult time because she could not move forward, but it helped her focus on what she wanted to achieve.

Eventually she came to the United States in 2004, and reunited with her father after 5 years. 6 months later, she began studying Industrial Design at the Cleveland Institute of Art. There she learned how to think as a designer and an artist.  Her focus is Industrial Design, but she makes sure to take elective classes, such as ceramics, jewelry/metal and fiber/pattern making, to expand her knowledge as an artist. In her work, she likes to compare two different cultures to find out what is behind them.