MFA Transdisciplinary Students Selected as 2024-2025 Fund for the City of New York Community Planning Fellows
Working with a community board in any big American city means working on a range of projects related to zoning, transportation, economic development, affordable housing, sustainability, and more.
A program for graduate students in New York City, sponsored by the Fund for the City of New York, gives them the opportunity to work with community boards as Community Planning Fellows. Recently, XuanXuan Huang and Zoë Evans, who are both currently enrolled in the MFA Transdisciplinary Design program at Parsons School of Design, were selected as Fellows, where they will gain important first-hand experience in community planning.
“I am thrilled and honored to have been chosen as a Fellow for the Community Planning Fellowship,” says Huang. “It carries a feeling of responsibility and pressure, as we will be delving into real-life situations that call for thorough analysis and thoughtful consideration.”
“It’s both exciting and a touch nerve-wracking to be selected as a Fellow,” echoes Evans. “The opportunity to integrate into and work with a community on issues around their local public space is not something to be taken lightly so I feel a sense of responsibility to the folks I will be working with.”
Huang and Evans were both attracted to the Fellowship given the ability to engage with real-world scenarios, and explore creative ways to use shared spaces. Furthermore, the experience will allow them to translate what they’ve learned at Parsons into practical knowledge, and provide them with new skills and perspectives.
“I’m excited to gain an intimate understanding of the inner workings of community governance, the relationship between community boards and their subsequent communities, and how the nuances of those relationships shape the work they do,” shares Evans.
“I aim to gain insights into the objectives of diverse collaborative projects, their operational frameworks, effective ways for students to engage in these processes, and ultimately acquire more hands-on experience,” says Huang.
The Transdisciplinary Design program, which is housed within the School of Design Strategies at Parsons, has prepared both Huang and Evans to succeed as Community Planning Fellows thanks to the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of the program.
“The program has provided me with new ways of knowing, interpreting, and translating those ineffable moments we experience when working collaboratively into generative paths forward,” explains Evans. “My practice and the work I often find myself doing is heavily reliant on working with others, as such these approaches and methodologies have become invaluable tools in my toolkit.”
Various members of the Parsons community have been engaging with their respective disciplines in exciting ways recently. Parsons faculty member Angeline Gragasin recently completed a residency at Yaddo, while Mohammad Valizadeh Alvan, Parsons MFA Lighting Design and Architectural Design ’25, won a scholarship from the Illuminating Engineers Society of New York City.
As Huang and Evans look ahead, they are both eager to utilize the skills they learn as Community Planning Fellows in their own work. Huang sees her work as a complement to her thesis, while Evans hopes to continue her research in an anthropology PhD program.