Joey More ’17: Second Alum to Earn a Pokémon Scholarship

Since graduating from Vassar, Joey More ’17 has worked as a community organizer in China, examined energy policy in sub-Saharan Africa, and analyzed ways of countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction with researchers at King’s College London.

He is now pursuing a dual master’s degree in engineering and design at Imperial College London and the Royal Academy of Arts (RA), and his second and final year will be fully funded by a $40,500 scholarship from the POKÉMON with YOU Foundation. The annual award supports pioneering postgraduate students at the RCA in visual arts, design, and communication.

In his first year in the master’s program, More designed and built a robot to automate needle felting; it was recently exhibited at the London Design Festival. In his final year, his work will consist of a group project focused on childhood development and an individual project, possibly continuing his work with human-robot collaboration. “It’s all about solving complex problems with innovative solutions and cutting-edge design methods,” he said.

More said his Vassar education had prepared him well for this challenging, multidisciplinary program—and helped him earn the scholarship. “More than anything else, Vassar teaches you how to learn,” he said. “I have no background in design engineering, but my Vassar education taught me how to go figure it out.”

Only 18 Pokémon Scholarships have been granted since the award was established in 2018, and two have gone to Vassar grads from the Class of 2017. More’s classmate, Steph Jump ’17, earned the Pokémon Scholarship in 2023.

While at Vassar, Jump was enrolled in the Vassar-Dartmouth Dual Degree program, enabling her to earn a degree in physics from Vassar and an engineering degree from Dartmouth. “I’m an engineer who was taught how to communicate effectively, and that has certainly enhanced my skill sets,” Jump said.

Further, she added, the scholarship “has given me the bravery to start my own company.” Jump founded Faros MedWorks (www.Faros.med), a firm advising MedTech startups, in San Francisco, CA in 2025.

“Pokémon has been a major inspiration for how I think about impact, particularly its commitment to ‘Think Globally, Act Locally,’” she added. “I strive to bring that same philosophy to my own career, with the ultimate goal of improving patient care around the world.”