Journalism Student Scholarships
Get the Facts
As a journalism student, you can put your research and writing skills to good use by competing for scholarships that will allow you to minimize your student loan debt.
Preparing Your Portfolio
While many journalism scholarships do consider your general record of academic achievement, most will want to evaluate your professional abilities as well. Before you can apply for these awards, you'll need to create a portfolio that showcases your best work.
When you're creating your portfolio, articles completed for your campus newspaper or published through a previous internship are preferable to projects done as class assignments. If an article in your portfolio was completed through a group effort, remember to include an explanation of your role in the project.
Finding Journalism Scholarships
While your school's financial aid office is an excellent source of general scholarship information, don't forget to contact your departmental advisor about journalism scholarships that you may be eligible to receive. Your advisor will be able to tell you about scholarships offered by local journalism alumni in addition to the awards given by media companies who provide scholarships to their unpaid interns.
Scholarships for Specific Career Goals
If you've already determined that you're interested in working a particular aspect of journalism after graduation, don't forget to investigate scholarships that are given to students with specific career goals. For example:
- The John Bayliss Broadcast Foundation offers a scholarship for juniors, seniors, and graduate students majoring in broadcast communications who have maintained a minimum 3.0 GPA. Financial need is considered, but preference is given to those with a history of participating in radio-related activities.
- The American Copyeditors Society awards scholarships to juniors, seniors, or graduate students who plan to become professional copyeditors. Graduating students who will take full-time copyediting jobs or internships are also eligible.
- The Overseas Press Club Foundation offers 12 scholarships of $2,000 to undergraduate and graduate journalism students who aspire to become foreign correspondents. Applicants must prepare an essay that demonstrates their understanding of an international issue or theme.
Scholarships for Minorities
Journalism is a field that is in desperate need of more minority representation. So, it's not surprising that a number of different scholarships are available for minority journalism students. For example:
- The Asian American Journalists Association offers a variety of scholarships for high school seniors as well as undergraduate and graduate journalism students. Awards are based on journalistic ability, financial need, professional goals, and sensitivity to Asian American and Pacific Islander cultural issues.
- The National Association of Black Journalists offers scholarships of up to $5,000 to student NABJ members who show journalistic promise and financial need. Applicants must submit a resume, essay, portfolio, transcripts, and letters of recommendation.
- The National Association of Hispanic Journalists offers scholarships to Latino students who are studying print, radio, television, online, or photo journalism. Scholarships are available for high school seniors, college undergraduates, and first-year graduate students who exhibit academic promise, journalistic talent, financial need, and a commitment to advancing issues of importance to the Hispanic community.
