NEWS RELEASE

Immediate: April 9, 2019

HGTV’s Property Brothers Select a Nassau Community College Interior Design Student as the Winner of an Internship at their Design Platform Casaza 

Garden City, NY – Casaza, an online platform for the home by Drew and Jonathan Scott from HGTV’s hit show Property Brothers, gave the Interior Design students at Nassau Community College the opportunity of a lifetime! These lucky students had a chance to show off their talent in a design competition to win an internship this summer with Drew and Jonathan Scott as well as national exposure on Casaza.com.

Nassau Community College is pleased to announce that the winner of the design competition is Raquel Montolio, a second year student from Massapequa, NY. The runners up are Alvaro Perez from Hicksville, NY and Louise Wilson from Mineola, NY. “I deeply support the mission of Casaza to bring design to a wider audience. This has been an amazing learning opportunity for me and my fellow classmates,” said Raquel Montolio. The internship is awarded to Raquel but all three students will have a designer profile page and their rooms virtually staged on Casaza.com. Raquel, Alvaro and Louise will be in great company, as their work will be featured alongside Drew, Jonathan and dozens of industry-leading designers who regularly curate content for Casaza.

This competition gave Nassau Community College Interior Design students a chance to demonstrate their design skills and fresh ideas by creating a “mood board” — a picture collage of a room with furniture items — using products available on the Casaza website. In addition, students were asked to submit a short summary about themselves, what they plan to do after graduation and why they should win the competition. Each submission was personally reviewed by Drew and Jonathan, who selected the winners. “We were enormously impressed by the talent and creativity of the students from Nassau Community College’s Interior Design Program,” said Jonathan Scott. “We are thrilled to welcome our new intern Raquel Montolio to the Casaza team,” added Drew Scott.

The Interior Design Program at Nassau Community College provides students with a broad-based, hands-on education geared towards obtaining employment in the field of interior design. Emphasis is placed on developing conceptual, technical, and communication skills and building industry relationships. “We are grateful to the Scott brothers and the Casaza team for the opportunity our students had to participate in the design competition to showcase their talents,” said Dr. Jerry Kornbluth, Dean, Business & Professional Studies.

Photo 1: (Left to Right) Professor Susan Beganskas, Louise Wilson, Alvaro Perez, Raquel Montolio, Dr. Jerry Kornbluth

Photo 2: Raquel Montolio, Nassau Community College Interior Design student and winner of the Casaza design competition.

Media Contact: Gail Mattimore 516.572.9634; gail.mattimore@ncc.edu

About Nassau Community College
Nassau Community College is an institution where more than 19,000 full-time, part-time, Workforce Development and continuing education students start and continue their successful journey through higher education. More than 80 fields of study are offered on a 225-acre campus located in the center of Long Island. As the largest single-campus two-year college in New York State SUNY System, Nassau Community College maintains a national reputation for excellence. For more information, visit www.ncc.edu.

About Casaza
Casaza is a platform for the home where visitors can be inspired and find everything they’ll need to renovate and rejuvenate their spaces. Through curated content, high quality products and world-class professionals, Casaza helps bring TV and magazine looks to life. Launched by the Scott brothers, Drew and Jonathan, in October 2018, Casaza brings elevated design to your home, one room at a time.

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