Congratulations to the 2011-2012
SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS:
Charlie Scudder, Indiana University, $5,000
Lauren Sedam, Indiana University, $5,000
Among the scholarships the IPCF hands out are:
Maurice and Robert Early Scholarship was created to honor the press club's first president, Maurice Early, a columnist and political reporter for The Indianapolis Star, and his brother Rober201t Early, who was managing editor of The Star for 34 years. The Early Scholarship goes to students who are pursuing a career in journalism and are enrolled at an Indiana college or university.
Walter E. and Mary E. Hemphill Scholarship was established in 1997. This fund grants journalism scholarships based on need to talented journalism students.
Our 2010 Scholarship winners:
Hemphill Scholarship
- Sean Morrison, Indiana University, $2,000
Maurice & Robert Early Scholarship
- Caitlin Johnston, Indiana University, $2,000
- Rachel Stark, Indiana University, $2,000
Lennis Scholarship
- Aisha Townsend, Butler University, $1,000
- Stephanie Kuzydym, Indiana University, $1,000
The Scholarship Committee was absolutely delighted this year to receive 69 scholarship applications this year, more than we’ve ever had. It was a surprise.
Only nine entries had arrived one day before the deadline. But, in what can only be described as true journalistic fashion, 60 entries arrived on the deadline or in our post office box in the days just following it.
It was an extremely difficult judging process because we had some very talented student journalists who applied and we were sad to pass on so many good entries.
Ultimately, we settled on students who appeared very committed to journalism careers who submitted absolutely outstanding writing samples. We were inspired by these writers.
The Hemphill Scholarship, which was endowed by a family who left funds for this purpose to the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation, went to Sean Morrison, an Indiana University junior. He received $2,000.
The judges were crazy about Sean’s descriptive and interesting stories, which included a compelling portrait of a high-jumper. Sean told us in his essay that he was 7 years old when he discovered journalism and made his career choice.
“Forget being a Power Ranger – I wanted to be a journalist. The whole uniformed-hero thing would’ve been worse pay and longer hours, anyway,” he wrote. “Today, I’m not so sure donning a white jumpsuit and fighting crime is a worse job in terms of hours, pay or even levels of stress and sanity. That hasn’t changed my plans to be a journalist, though.”
We feel confident that we will be seeing great things from Sean.
The judges awarded two Maurice & Robert Early Scholarships, which are $2,000 each and named for former Indianapolis Star journalists.
Our first winner was Caitlin Johnston, an Indiana University senior.
Caitlin is a fantastic writer who has a talent for description and is clearly dedicated to the craft. She spent many nights at a Steak & Shake to write an interesting profile about a waitress there and spent an evening with some teens who were smoking synthetic marijuana for a story in The Journal Gazette about whether the drug should be criminalized.
Caitlin wrote in her essay that she wants “to produce good, honest stories. I want to inform and to inspire. I want to write so that setting down the paper or clicking a different link never crosses the reader’s mind.”
We are confident she is the kind of writer who can achieve that.
Our second Early Scholarship winner was Rachel Stark, another Indiana University senior.
Rachel captured our attention with a fascinating story about graffiti on a bathroom wall. She discovered an ongoing conversation on the wall, one that started with a woman writing about her bulimia and continued with advice from her fellow students. She even tracked down one of the students who wrote on the wall.
Rachel oversees four sections of IU’s Insight magazine and writes as well for the Indiana Daily Student and Running Times magazine. Her letter of recommendation, from IU professor Nancy Comiskey, said that Rachel “demands excellence. She’s a talented reporter and writer who’s going to get even better.”
We believe that.
The judges also chose two winners for the Lennis Scholarship, which is named for another former Indianapolis Star writer.
Each Lennis Scholarship was $1,000 and at least one was designated for a Butler University student. That winner was Aisha Townsend.
Aisha is only a sophomore at Butler but she has already completed two internships that involve writing, even as she has been deeply involved in charity work and several student organizations.
Aisha attended the Emerson School for the Visual and Performing Arts in Gary and two of her clips came from her high school years, when she was writing a guest column for the Gary Post Tribune.
We were impressed with the maturity in that writing even as a high school student and we also liked a story she wrote for the Butler Collegian about the experiences of an African-American studies professor at a majority white university.
Our second Lennis Scholarship winner was Stephanie Kuzydym.
Stephanie is an Indiana University junior who specializes at the Indiana Daily Student in sports but wrote some impressive news stories when she interned for the South Bend Tribune. We liked her story about a man who was left homeless after his house was condemned. It puts the reader right in the middle of the home with vivid descriptions but the newsier parts of the story are handled deftly as well.
We also loved a story about a golfer who hit a hole-in-one in a tournament thanks to a caddy’s advice and gave the caddy the car he won as a result. It was a delightful topic and she captured the spirit of the moment.
Ron Johnson, IU’s director of student media, said that her “work ethic, persistence, speed and attention to detail” makes Stephanie one of the student’s newspaper’s best journalists.
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The 2009 Scholarship winners can be found here.
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More information on these programs can be obtained by emailing the Foundation at jlabalme.indypress@att.net
