Kneeling: Hong Wang - Third Place Textile Design, Tiffany Henry – First Place Fashion Design, Jocelyn Tunney – First Place Textile Design, and Elizabeth Kuzila – Third Place Fashion Design. 
Standing:  Neil Tufano– Pro Tech, Harper College, Kim DeVos – Judge and Production Award Provider, Robin
Alpert – SDC Coordinator, Linda Bylsma – Judge and Student Ambassador, Audrey Ott – garment in fashion
show, Jessica Ponnath – Second Place Fashion Design, Olga Pasman – Second Place Fashion Design and
Production Award, and Cheryl Turnauer – Coordinator of Fashion Department, Harper College. 
Not Pictured:  David Stensland, Judge and Lu Ann Gaskill – Fashion Department Head at Virginia Tech.

There was lots of excitement at the F2F Meet and Greet held on Friday night, January 25, 2008. This was the venue chosen to present the winners of the Student Design Competition with their Awards of Excellence and scholarship checks. What a rewarding time for the six winning students brought to the conference by the generous sponsors of the F2F SDC. With pictures of their fabulous designs flashing above them on a giant screen, each student came forward to be presented with a plaque to hang in their school, a plaque for themselves, and best of all, a check.

   The Mission Statement for the Student Design Competition is: To expose college-level art, fashion and textile design students and professors to the wonders of designing with alpaca fiber. By promoting the competition, we are ensuring the next generation of designers will be entering the workforce with a positive awareness of this amazing luxury fiber that can be utilized throughout their professional lives. This is exactly what is starting to happen in our industry.

   This year, along with seven students, three professors from two colleges and universities also attended to the F2F Conference.  
 
 Thanks to the AOBA Board for approving the Fiber Committee’s request that instructors of winning students conferences fees be waived. This is a big step in support of our fiber industry.