The financial awards range up to $1,000 each in these areas: ethnic minorities, broadcast journalism, investigative or political reporting, and general journalism.

Applications and details are available here.

Students are encouraged to propose innovation, particularly in developing convergence projects for collegiate media. For example, the scholarship money might finance the acquisition of technology (laptops or video cameras) needed to create multimedia news stories. Preference for awarding the scholarships will go to proposals for non-traditional ideas.

On recommendation of the judges, these awards may be divided among two or more equally promising applicants. Scholarship funding is renewable, but renewal is not automatic. Previous winners who continue to meet eligibility requirements may apply to renew their awards. Renewal requests are considered along with all other scholarship applications and given no preference.

Primarily, awards are based on applicants’ potential to succeed in news media careers. However, financial need is considered if all other qualifications of competing applicants are equal.

Applicants may apply for more than one scholarship by checking all of the appropriate boxes on the form, but no more than one scholarship will be awarded to any applicant. Multiple applications will be discarded.

In addition, applicants must:

– Provide proof of enrollment or acceptance as journalism major at a four-year college or university.

* If your college does not have a journalism program, you must supply a letter from an SPJ member in good standing in your geographic area or an adviser to your student media program, verifying that you intend to pursue a career as a professional journalist and that you show strong potential as a journalist.
* Students completing pre-journalism programs must provide proof they have been admitted to a journalism program.
* Students must have completed at least the sophomore year in college, and have at least one semester to complete in a journalism program after the award of the scholarship.
* Graduate students in journalism programs are eligible. However, students in fields, such as advertising, public relations or law, are not eligible.

– Reside in or be enrolled at a university or college in Los Angeles, Orange or Ventura counties.

BAMMA is a free two-week residential program to develop journalism skills and careers for Bay Area high school students. This year’s program will run from Sunday, June 21 through Saturday, July 4, 2009. For more information, see below or follow this link: http://bamma.ciij.org.

WHO we want:
Bay Area high school students interested in journalism-related careers who want two weeks of intense training from professional journalists and journalism instructors. Up to 12 students will be selected for this program.

WHAT the program’s about:
BAMMA 2009 is the 19th annual workshop hosted by CIIJ, the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism. We offer a two-week residential program built around multi-platform journalism skills and ca­reers. Our graduates work in print, radio, television and online journalism. The program is FREE for all students.

WHERE we are:
San Francisco State University. Students stay in the university dorms, eat on campus, travel to media outlets and cover real news stories that are published in their own newspa­per, the Golden Gate Xpress 2.0, and website.

WHEN & WHY:
Sunday, June 21st to Saturday, July 4th.
BAMMA is dedicated to providing opportu­nities to youth from diverse backgrounds in order to develop skills as journalists that will open doors in media careers and help the profession do a better job covering news for everyone.

HOW to apply:
Download the online application, write the essays, have your school send an official copy of your transcript and get letters of recommen­dation from two teachers. Materials must be received by April 17, 2009.

Questions? Contact CIIJ at 415.338.2083

All college/university students who are actively pursuing a degree in journalism or who produce digital media as of the conference dates are eligible. Membership in ONA is not required. The approximately 20 available spots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, and a wait list will be maintained.

The ONA09 Student Newsroom immerses college students in a digital media environment by providing hands-on experience producing content for the ONA09 Web site — ONAConference.org — before and during the
conference, and under the guidance of professional mentors. Students also have the opportunity to attend sessions, to network with attendees and to acquire new digital media skills.

Students selected for the ONA09 Student Newsroom will receive a free conference registration, entry to the Online Journalism Awards banquet and reimbursement for parking and local public transportation. ONA will provide roommate matching for out-of-town participants to stay at the conference hotel at their own expense. Students are responsible for transportation beyond what is outlined above.

In return, students must commit to attending all three days of the conference and will be expected to be at the conference venue — the San Francisco Hilton — early Thursday morning, Oct. 1, for coverage planning. Students also will tour a local media facility that day.

TO APPLY: Complete the ONA09 Student Newsroom Application using the latest version of Adobe Reader. Ensure information has been saved in the form before sending.

E-mail the application, a letter of recommendation (e-mailed by a faculty advisor), resume and relevant links to Sara Kelly, Student Newsroom Coordinator, at ONA09newsroom@journalists.org. Subject line: ONA Student Newsroom Application – [last name].

QUESTIONS? Direct any questions to Sara Kelly at ONAnewsroom@journalists.org.

All entries must be e-mailed or postmarked by June 30, 2009. Electronic submissions are preferred. Winners will be informed no later than October 1, and honored at the Chapter’s Excellence in Journalism Awards in San Francisco in October 2009.

Download an application at: http://nlgja.org/chapters/northerncal.htm.

Bob Ross, for whom the scholarship is named, founded San Francisco newspaper the Bay Area Reporter in 1971. The Bay Area Reporter is one of the oldest known Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) papers in the nation. Ross, who was also a passionate advocate for both LGBT and AIDS rights, passed away in 2003.

NLGJA is an organization of journalists, online media professionals and students that works from within the journalism industry to foster fair and accurate coverage of LGBT issues. NLGJA opposes workplace bias against all minorities and provides professional development for its members. The Northern California Chapter is responsible for furthering NLGJA’s mission in this region and is directed by a Board elected by members who live and work here.

Applicants for the student scholarship should be pursuing an education in journalism or a related field at an institution of higher education in Northern California. Students who are from Northern California but are pursuing journalism-related studies out of state also qualify. The winning candidate must demonstrate an outstanding commitment to NLGJA’s mission.

A candidate’s sexual orientation is not a factor in the decision-making process. Scholarship recipients will have an opportunity for an ongoing professional relationship with NLGJA journalists. The winner will be selected at the discretion of NLGJA’s NorCal Chapter Board based on academic and journalistic excellence, as well as a demonstrated commitment to and understanding of NLGJA’s mission.

A Survey of High School Journalism in Southern California Reveals Obstacles of Funding, Teacher Training and Future of Student Newspapers

Los Angeles, March 2009 – A new study of high school journalism in Southern California commissioned by the McCormick Foundation has found that high school student newspapers are more likely to be published at schools that offer journalism classes. In addition, the McCormick Foundation-funded study indicates that First Amendment issues, poor literacy skills, and lack of time and resources are among the challenges facing high school journalism teachers and students.

The two-part survey research was conducted for McCormick Foundation by the Evaluation and Training Institute (ETI), a non-profit research and consulting firm specializing in the evaluation of educational and social programs, in collaboration with Los Angeles-based Youth News Service, publisher of L.A. Youth, a teen-written newspaper distributed to more than 1,400 classrooms six times a year.

An online survey was completed by 235 teachers from 143 schools in Southern California and was supplemented by a student focus group of 11 student journalists.

More than 70 percent of teacher respondents reported their school offered journalism as an elective course. Of the schools with journalism classes, 87 per cent had offered a student newspaper, in sharp contrast to just 29 percent of schools that did not offer journalism.

“High school journalism does matter,” said Clark Bell, director of the McCormick Foundation’s Journalism Program.  “We hope this survey produces more focused attention on the needs and benefits of journalism courses and extra-curricular media activities in Southern California high schools.”

Additional findings include:

• Nearly 90 percent of teachers at schools without journalism would like to see a journalism program in place in their schools.

• Extra-curricular media activities including newspapers, yearbooks, web publications, and student TV/radio broadcasts augment or sometimes take the place of journalism classes. But 24 percent of schools without journalism offered no media activities. 

• A majority of journalism teachers report that neither they or the school’s principal have withheld a story from publication or required that it be substantially rewritten because of the subject matter. However, students surveyed indicated that, from their perspective, the format of the paper, culture of the school and administrative pressures inhibit their subject choices.

• Nearly a fifth of teachers reported having no budget for the newspaper. Some (52 percent) reported that their newspaper’s annual budget fell between $1,000 and $4,999.

• When reporting challenges, almost half the journalism teachers (48 percent) indicated that lack of an adequate budget was very much a factor, as was not having enough time in the school schedule and the poor quality of students’ work.

The full report is available by contacting editor@layouth.com. 

The world is changing; are you prepared to cover it? Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Online News Association and the USC Annenberg School of Journalism present a Better Watchdog Workshop with a digital twist. Learn skills necessary for reporters who want to dig deeper, navigate the Web better, mine social sites, negotiate for information and be more efficient while producing quality work. In addition, attend the Selden Ring Award lunch and hear from the winners at a special workshop session. Offerings are sure to benefit journalists of all experience levels.

Highlights:

• The art of finding and cultivating sources using social networks.
• Covering the economic crisis.
• What to do with all of that data on the Web?
• Key documents and what to do with them.
• Making effective use of the Internet.
• The right to records and meetings.
• Unlocking the power of spreadsheets (optional hands-on training April 18).

For more information and to register:

• ire.org/training/watchdog/losangeles09.php
• $40 professional
• $20 student
• $30 for optional spreadsheet computer lab | 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.| Sunday, April 18
• All registrations include a six-month membership to IRE
• For more information contact IRE at training@ire.org or (573) 882-2042

Two communitiy college professors and one universtiy professor were honored as outstanding instructors by the California Journalism Education Coaltion at the annual convention of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges March 29.

Honored were:

• Paul McLeod, who teaches journalism and advises student publications at both Los Angeles Harbor (Wilmington) and Saddleback (Mission Viejo) colleges,
• Paul DeBolt, who teaches journalism and advises the student publication at Contra Costa College (San Pablo), and
• Dr. David Waddell, who teaches journalism and advises the student publication at California State University, Chico.

McLeod is a former LA Times reporter and splits his time between the two Southern California community colleges, which are about 50 miles apart, as a part-timer at each. Both colleges have print and online publications. At Saddleback College, in particular, he has successfully introduced student to New Media reporting skills along with their traditional print product.

DeBolt is one of the most senior and most respected community college journalism instructors in the state. He’s been at Contra Costa since 1980 and his students produce what some call one of the best student publications in the nation. He just advised his 750th issue of the college newspaper, the Advocate. In the last two years, especially, his students have embraced New Media reporting methods for the online version of the newspaper. DeBolt has twice served as president of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges.

Waddell’s students also publish both in print and online and their publications are often listed when talking about the best examples of student work in the nation. Under his leadership the program runs a number of outreach projects each year for Chcio State alumni, high school students and community college students. He was recently selected to serve as the president of the California College Media Association, an association of public and private university programs.

It’s not an ordinary course. But it is an attempt at cross-cultural learning. Students at Biola University, in La Mirada, took a Monday, Wednesday, Friday course spring semester with an interesting twist to the syllabus: on Fridays, class was called off.

Instead of that hour of class — and whatever prep they’d have done for it — students were directed to use the 90 minutes or so to visit a place of worship or spiritual experience different than what they’d ever seen before.
Could be a mosque, a synagogue, a temple. Or it could be a church with pews and a pulpit or an altar and statues if they’d never experienced either before. And students couldn’t just go and flee. They had to talk to someone in leadership — preferably a few people — about what it all meant.

The resulting discussion, and blogging, was part of a course based around the role of media in American religion, studying how diverse cultures use music, visuals, narrative and Art to help themselves experience faith within communities across Southern California.

What the students learned about the faiths around them — and about themselves — helped the course succeed in ways few expected. One expected outcome of the course was students’ awareness of the enormous religious diversity and international culture just outside their doors in south Los Angeles and northern Orange County.

Students also learned ways that narratives of news media and the entertainment industry miss the mark in trying to explain the genuine faith experience of Americans. An unexpected outcome was the tight connection many faith communities in California have with faith communities in other parts of the world. Students also learned about ways that media of ethnic communities effectively crosses nation-state boundaries.

The course grew out of a self-study visit last year in which visiting faculty pointed out Biola’s lack of journalism courses dealing with cross-cultural experience and racial diversity in the context of faith.

Printing Industries of America is seeking to honor an academic educator and an industry trainer from the graphic communications field. Nominations for the Education Awards of Excellence are due May 15, 2009.

Now in their twenty-fifth year, the Education Awards of Excellence were established by Printing Industries of America as a way to recognize that the success of graphic arts education and training programs depends heavily on the motivation, enthusiasm, and leadership of those dedicated to teaching

Educators from all academic levels and instructors in all segments of the printing industry are eligible for the award, and nominees do not have to be Printing Industries of America members. Nominations for both academic educators and industry trainers are often merited by one or more of the following selection criteria:

• A distinguished educational service provided as a direct result of the individual’s leadership
• A special education or training program that is attributed to the efforts of the individual
• A significant educational project that was the result of the individual’s efforts
• A special display of graphic communications leadership at the local, state, or national level
• A special educational or training accomplishment attributed to the individual

Unique contributions not covered by the selection criteria will also be considered, with more significance attached to contributions that go beyond routine professional responsibilities. Self-nominations are accepted. Previous winners are not eligible for a second award.

Nominations are judged by a selection committee comprised of educators and individuals from the graphic communications industry. The competition is not limited to the United States; educators of any nationality may enter.

The recipients will be honored at the 2009 GASC/Printing Industries of America Teacher’s Conference, September 11-13 in Chicago, IL.

For more information on the Education Awards of Excellence, contact Deena Hower, Marketing Coordinator, at 412-259-1702 or dhower@printing.org.

Additional Resources:
Education Awards of Excellence Web Page
Education Awards Nomination Form (PDF)
Education Awards Past Recipients-Full Listing
GASC/Printing Industries of America Teachers Conference Web Page

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