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Last summer, Cleveland Institute of Art announced it would grant one full-tuition, four-year scholarship to a Cleveland Metropolitan School District student enrolling at the college of art and design in the fall of 2015.

The scholarship is open to any current senior at a CMSD high school who submits to CIA a complete application for admission, along with a complete portfolio or artwork, by the March 1, 2015 deadline, and is accepted for admission.

With the deadline approaching, we caught up with a CMSD graduate currently enrolled at CIA for his take on the college. Mario Davenport, a sophomore majoring in Industrial Design, graduated from Cleveland School of the Arts in 2013. A diligent student, he broke away from his on-campus studio just long enough to answer these questions.

How did you hear about Cleveland Institute of Art and what made you choose it?

My high school art teacher, Mr. Danny Carver, is actually a CIA graduate (Class of 1980) and he had nothing but good things to say about it. He highly recommended it. I also attended the Pre-College program, which was the biggest deciding factor. I enjoyed it.

What made you choose to major in Industrial Design?

It was a couple of things. I don’t like sculpture more than I like drawing and I don’t like drawing more than I like sculpture and ID really gives you the opportunity to create and see it, from the seed of an idea to something that affects people, whether in the most minute way possible or in a major way. That’s one reason.

The other is that I felt it could be applicable to a lot of things, from concept art to furniture, which is what I like, right now at least, because it covers so many different parts of learning your art and craft.

And it involves business aspects as well. I think you’re practical when you do that and you’re better off finding a professional career when you graduate. And the last thing is that it is very highly ranked; it’s one of the best programs in the country.

What was the biggest adjustment for you when you came to CIA?

The workload was, for me, a lot to get used to. And it still is pretty rough but it only makes you better coming out of it and it really lets you know if you’re serious about this. I think it’s a school where, if you’re going to work through it, you’re going to be that much better for it.

Are your relationships with your CIA professors different from the relationships you had with your high school teachers?

Your purpose and their purpose is much closer, so I think that gives you an automatic connection and that makes communicating, understanding and solving problems much more personal, on both sides, and it makes it a much more enjoyable experience, a smoother experience. Things click a lot easier because you’re kind of cut from a similar cloth.

What would you say to a high school student considering CIA?

If you’re serious about having a career in the arts and you want to do this for the rest of your life and you’re serious about it, I would recommend coming here. This is not an institute where art isn’t the first thing. This is what you do; this is what you pay for; you’re going to be doing it a lot and everyone’s taking it seriously and I think you’re going to get really good results if you go all the way with it.

What’s next for you?

I’m working on getting a paid internship this summer.

Editor’s note: There is no specific application for the CMSD scholarship, rather the recipient will be chosen by a CIA selection committee, which will review all applications for admission from CMSD students, looking at both their portfolios of artwork and their records of academic achievement. The scholarship will be renewal for up to four years. To qualify for renewal, the recipient must maintain a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.0.