THE GOOD LIFE
ST YL E
The Chic Geek
Systems analyst Ebony Staten supports minority female first-generation college students with stylish dorm rooms through her nonprofit, The Vogue Room Foundation BY TAYLOR BOWLER PHOTOGRAPHS BY RUSTY WILLIAMS
TWO YEARS AGO, Ebony Staten was scrolling through her Instagram feed and stopped at a post by Michelle Obama. It was a photo of her at Princeton University in the early ’80s with a message to her fellow first-generation college students: Be brave and stay with it, because education profoundly changed her life. “Just like Oprah, I had my great ‘aha’ moment,” Staten recalls. The 33-year-old systems analyst and Charlotte native had been the first in her family to attend college, too. She wanted a way to give back and support other first-generation college students, so she launched The Vogue Room Foundation to provide dorm room makeovers. The Vogue Room Foundation is an offshoot of Staten’s interior design bou-
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tique, The Vogue Room, which merges her love of high fashion and interiors. The program selects first-generation female college students to receive a full interior design and installation of her dorm room. The scholarship is available to high school students in North Carolina who are on track to attend an in-state college or university. Applicants must provide transcripts, extracurricular activities, and a 250-word essay that describes what it means to them to be a first-generation college student. To date, Staten has had three recipients—one in 2018, two in 2019. The first, a graduate of West Charlotte High School, was a rising freshman at Staten’s alma mater, North Carolina Central University. The others went to UNC Chapel Hill
and North Carolina Ebony Staten A&T University. “I launched The Vogue Room work with them as Foundation if they are one of to provide my clients,” Staten dorm room makeovers for says. She’ll note first-generation favorite colors and college students. study their Pinterest boards, then create a mood board of the space. Once they’re set on a design, they have a shopping day together. At a time when rising college freshmen spend $1,500 or more to decorate a dorm room, Staten wants to alleviate that expense for a deserving student. “Just go on YouTube, and there are tutorials Continued on next page
