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Laika Studios and Portland State University announced an inaugural class of scholars to foster careers in the creative industry. Their three-year pilot program awarded a $10,000 scholarship for the 2025–26 school year to six undergraduate students majoring in the arts to form a cohort and work closely with experts at Laika.
From a pool of 100 applicants, student finalists Praveen Badu, Abby Fox, Rosemary Gostovich, Haley Hsu, Catherine Olivares and Xquenda Penrose were selected for the cohort. Prospective applicants wrote essays about their career goals, how their experiences have been shaped by inclusivity, and a challenge they overcame, along with listing awards and activities. The PSU-Laika cohort was established in 2024, but Leroy E. Bynum, Jr., dean of PSU’s College of the Arts, says the collaboration has been in the works for several years.
“We are really interested in seeing what creative projects come out of this,” he says. “I have no doubt this is going to be a very positive experience.”
Faculty members Alison Heryer, Stephen Lee and J.J. Vazquez will receive funding plus time off from teaching to pursue their creative work, industry-specific expertise from LAIKA for curriculum development, and opportunities to collaborate on future projects. Bynum says the recipients span disciplines and represent all four of PSU’s art schools. Hsu, for example, studies graphic design, while Heryer is a professor of textile arts and costume design.
“Our mission is so closely aligned with the support and encouragement for all types of creativity,” Bynum says. “It feels absolutely wonderful. This has been a long time coming.”
Previously, Laika—the Hillsboro-based stop-motion animation studio behind films like Coraline, The Boxtrolls, and Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’ forthcoming Wildwood—partnered with Portland Community College to help create film coursework this past spring term. It also collaborated with Bowie State University, an historically Black university in Maryland, in 2021. Plans are already underway for more PSU scholars in 2026 and 2027.
“Both Laika and PSU are very eager to see what fruit this bears, which is another beauty of creativity,” Bynum says. “You got a blank canvas, and I can’t wait to see how that canvas is filled.”
