School of Art and Design Announces 2026 Outstanding Students
Celebrating creativity, innovation, and academic excellence, the school honors standout students whose work reflects thoughtful design, artistic exploration, and research. Through interior architecture and ceramics, these students are using art and design to explore identity, collaboration, and human connection.
Yewon Shin: Outstanding Undergraduate Student of Art and Design
Yewon Shin, an outstanding undergraduate student in interior architecture with a minor in art, has built her SDSU experience around design, research, and creative exploration.
During her time at SDSU, Shin presented her work at the SDSU Interior Architecture Student Exhibition and the SDSU Student Symposium. She also served as a board member of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and worked as a student research assistant, gaining hands-on experience in both academic and applied design settings.
Through her internship and academic work, Shin developed a deeper understanding of adaptability and problem-solving, learning to navigate challenges and collaborate in real-world environments.
“Collaborating with others in a real-world highlighted that things don’t always unfold as planned,” Shin said. “Facing those challenges helped me strengthen my mental resilience and enhance my problem-solving abilities, which is one of the important skills that I know will support me throughout my career.”
After graduation, Shin aspires to become a professor, with the goal of providing future students with the same impactful education and mentorship she experienced at SDSU.
She credits Yin Yu for guidance and influence throughout her academic journey.
Shin’s advice to incoming students: take every opportunity, stay curious, and embrace experiences that challenge your growth.
Sarah Garcia: Outstanding Graduate Student of Ceramics
Sarah Garcia, an outstanding graduate student earning her Master of Fine Arts in ceramics, created thesis work centered on collaboration, memory, and inherited identity through dialogues with her daughter.
Using clay as her primary medium, Garcia developed vessels informed by shared conversations, personal histories, and explorations of family patterns, identity, and transformation. Her work examines ideas of care, protection, and connection, while reimagining new ways of shaping relationships and understanding the future.
Through her artistic practice, Garcia explores how vessels can function both physically and symbolically as spaces for holding, organizing, and transforming lived experiences.
While at San Diego State University, Garcia said she was encouraged and challenged by a supportive community of faculty and students who helped deepen her artistic practice through experimentation, collaboration, and collective learning.
“I aspire to continue growing as an artist and educator, teach craft materials and processes, facilitate personal and interpersonal relationships through making, and support other artists in their creative work,” she said.
According to her daughter, Garcia’s strengths include being caring, fair, protective, empathetic, and curious.
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