Scholarships for High School Seniors Majoring in Journalism
High school seniors who want to become journalists will find a multitude of college scholarships out there to help them attain their goal. Though many of them are earmarked for students already in college, high school seniors are not left out in the cold, especially since some of the scholarships completely cover four years of college costs.
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Local Scholarships
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Students should start their scholarship search with the local media. Many newspapers and television stations offer scholarships. The list includes ABC 8 WMTW, a Portland, Maine, television station that established the Bob Elliot scholarship, named after one of its journalists. Local scholarships generally are not as large as national scholarships, but seniors are only competing against a small pool of applicants compared to the hundreds or thousands who apply for the large scholarships.
Colleges
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Colleges that have schools of journalism or communications typically have scholarships for students who will be majoring in these fields. Seniors should always check these departments to find out about available scholarships for incoming freshmen. Some colleges offer pretty fantastic scholarships, such as the Park Scholar Program at Ithaca College in New York. The program offers 15 to 20 scholarships to incoming freshmen, which pay all expenses from tuition, room and board to books. The scholarship is renewable through a student's senior year at Ithaca. The first-year scholarship includes money to buy a computer.
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Press Associations
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Press associations and communications groups also are good sources for scholarships. For example, the National Press Club, based in Washington, D.C., offers scholarships for high school seniors. One is the diversity scholarship, which is renewable for up to three years beyond the first year's award. The club is looking for aspiring journalists who will bring diversity to journalism. A recent winner was a student who was active in gay/lesbian rights at her high school. Another scholarship is named for a late member, Richard G. Zimmerman; applicants must have a 3.0 grade point average to apply.
New York Women in Communications is another organization that sponsors scholarships for high school seniors. The group awards 15 to 20 scholarships annually to U.S. citizens who live in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut or Pennsylvania.
Education Organizations
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Educational groups also are sources of scholarships. The Journalism Education Association, comprised of high school journalism teachers, offers a scholarship to the high school journalist of the year. Applicants must be students of an association member. Applicants must compile a portfolio of their work in high school journalism for the state competition. The state winners compete for the national title.
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