Games and art tools studio Braintreehouse has partnered with the School of Visual Arts and the Visual Arts Foundation, the nonprofit organization that provides SVA student scholarships, to create the Sketchboard Pro Scholarship for MFA Visual Narrative students.

Awarded to two students annually in support of their thesis projects, the scholarship provides each recipient $2,500, an iPad Pro and Braintreehouse’s Sketchboard Pro artist bundle—which includes the studio’s Sketchboard Pro iPad stand, travel bag and sticker pack, and Essential Procreate Brushpack—plus advisory expertise from designated Sketchboard Pro artists. Additionally, all MFA Visual Narrative students will be eligible for an annual Braintreehouse discount, accessible up to one year after graduation.

The review panel for the scholarship, which included two MFA Visual Narrative alumni, was tasked with choosing the winners based on work samples, essays and a formal presentation of their in-progress thesis projects. This year’s recipients, Laura Brown and Oret Peña, are both second-year students. Brown’s thesis project, a graphic novel titled Fallen, tells a story of friendship, desire, loss and the self-help paradox. Peña’s project, currently titled Magical Girl Leila, brings Latino lead characters and representation to American comics and is inspired by her love for cartoons, anime and classic magical-girl manga heroes like Sailor Moon, Tokyo MewMew and Madoka Magica.

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The new annual scholarship provides a cash award and artist’s tools for two students in the low-residency graduate program.