Reflections on Figma’s inaugural Student Fellowship | Figma Blog

Figma’s inaugural Student Fellowship was created in response to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift away from campus-based education. Rather than organizing local meetups, Figma worked with students to build accessible resources, communities, and programs for remote learning and collaboration. Over 10 weeks, the fellowship successfully produced classroom tools, student-focused content, and virtual community experiences while establishing a model for future student programs.

Rethinking the Student Program

• Figma originally planned to make on-campus meetups central to its education efforts.
• As students faced remote semesters and uncertain campus plans, the team reconsidered how to support them beyond physical classrooms.
• Student conversations focused on:
  • Recreating classroom and campus collaboration online
  • Supporting extracurricular projects
  • Helping educators adapt to new teaching environments
  • Understanding students’ changing needs
• The program centered on classroom resources, student stories, the Virtual Campus Slack Community, and hackathons.

Setting a Broader Vision

• The fellowship aimed not only to ship content but also to establish a foundation for future fellowship programs.
• Figma considered how the program could complement:
  • On-campus student ambassadors
  • The Friends of Figma community
  • The broader design ecosystem
• The group prioritized resources that were both accessible to students and aspirational.
• Although fellows worked across separate workstreams, they operated as a cohesive team and intended their work to reach Figma employees and professional designers as well as students.

Classroom Resources

• The fellows created six classroom templates usable both online and in person.
• Examples included:
  • A research-project toolbox
  • A playground file for learning Figma’s editor
  • An assignment-creation template
• They also curated a broader collection of community resources to help teachers and students learn, create, and use Figma effectively.

Student Stories and Career Questions

• Conversations with students revealed widespread uncertainty about whether to take a gap year.
• Figma responded with a “Back To School?” interview series featuring:
  • Dylan Field
  • Marc Andreessen
  • May-Li Khoe
  • Karlie Kloss
  • John Maeda
  • Laura Deming
• The interviews explored gap years, education, and alternative paths through higher education.
• Fellow Abigail Africa also published guidance on pitching and presenting, emphasizing audience awareness, confidence, and storytelling.

Virtual Campus and Camp Figma

• More than 1,000 students joined Figma’s Virtual Campus Slack Community during the summer.
• The community enabled students to connect, teach, learn, and socialize remotely.
• Figma also hosted Camp Figma, a two-day virtual make-a-thon involving hundreds of students across dozens of time zones.
• Featured winning projects included FigmAdventure and Slice.

Overall Impact

• The fellowship demonstrated that student programming could extend beyond campus events through digital communities and reusable resources.
• Its success gave Figma a practical foundation for developing future fellowships and strengthening its broader education initiatives.
• The program also showed the value of involving students directly in designing services intended for their own community.