Radio Production and Broadcast Journalism Scholarships

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Students planning to major in radio production or broadcast journalism should expect to find scholarships plentiful and competition correspondingly vigorous. As print journalism declines, digital broadcasting and reporting expand, moving an old profession to a new set of media.

Every traditional, university-based journalism school offers scholarships, as you’ll see by reviewing the financial aid pages for those schools, and the scholarships listed below are a representative sample rather than a complete list.

Scholarships From Private Organizations

National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) is a group of broadcasting professionals, one of three groups responsible for the Emmy Awards. NATAS hands out the annual Jim McKay and Mike Wallace Memorial Scholarships, two awards of $10,000 each named for famous broadcasters. They go to graduating high school seniors who show talent in video programming, competitive drive, and academic ability.

There are numerous chapters of NATAS that also offer scholarships, and here are three examples:

• The NATAS Northwest Chapter provides three scholarships of $2,500 apiece to students of television. You will need to submit information on your television experience, and you must attend school in the chapter’s five-state region.
• The NATAS National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter sponsors the Betty Endicott NATAS-NCCB Chapter Student Scholarship every year. The award brings $5,000 to a student in communications and broadcast journalism, and your school must be located in Washington, DC, Maryland, or Virginia.
• The NATAS Boston/New England Chapter also gives a $5,000 award to a graduating high school senior who plans to major in television or a subject related thereto. You must live in New England and attend a four-year school.

National Association of Black Journalists

The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) has posted a page with links to its seven scholarships, with a common set of eligibility requirements. You must:

• Have a NABJ student membership
• Be enrolled full-time in an accredited school
• Major in journalism or a related field
• Meet GPA standards and have at least a year of school left
• Submit a cover letter, essay, references, resume, and work samples

There are six $2,500 awards (the Allison E. Fisher, Carole Simpson, DeWayne Wickham Founder’s High School, Larry Whiteside, Les Payne Founder’s and NABJ Scholarships), and the seventh, called the Visual Task Force Scholarship, is worth $1,500.

Radio Television Digital News Association

The Radio Television Digital News Association lists nine undergraduate scholarships that share an application form. Some are named after well-known journalists (Ed Bradley, Carole Simpson, Pete Wilson, Mike Reynolds), and others include the Presidents Scholarship, Lou and Carole Prato Sports Reporting Scholarship, and George Foreman Tribute to Lyndon B. Johnson Scholarship.

Frequently found criteria are these: you must be officially enrolled (with at least one more year of school to go), you must be at least a sophomore, and you must choose only one award for which to apply. You may select any major as long as you plan a career in journalism.

Dallas Mavericks Foundation

The Dallas Mavericks Foundation has established a scholarship named after their first radio broadcaster, the Mark Holtz Memorial Sports Broadcast Journalism Scholarship, for the benefit of students in that field. It brings $2,000 to a high school senior living within seventy-five miles of Dallas, and you must submit information about both your grades and your extracurricular activities with your application. Note: While the documentation is dated, the last recorded instance of the award occurred in 2012.

Scholarships From Colleges

University of Maryland

The Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland has posted a scholarships page with several categories of award, and here are three of those reserved for continuing students:

• The Paul Berg Diamondback Scholarship, named for a former editor of the campus newspaper, recognizes an outstanding Diamondback staffer who has worked on the paper for at least one semester and will return to school in the fall.
• The Bonnie Bernstein ’92 Journalism Scholarship, which is not renewable, goes to a financially needy Broadcast student who attends school full-time. Preference is given to student-athletes in the junior or senior year who have a 3.2 GPA.
• The John Story Cleghorn and Nona Reese Cleghorn Scholarship and the Reese Cleghorn Excellence in Journalism Scholarship is awarded to either an undergraduate or graduate student with a strong academic history, and financial need is preferred.

Michigan State University

Michigan State University’s School of Journalism distributes a number of scholarships to its students, such as these:

• The Applegate awards (A.A. Applegate Scholarship and Albert A. Applegate Outstanding Senior) recognize outstanding journalism students who are known for integrity and intelligence (for the scholarship) and scholarly efforts (the senior award).
• The Don Caldwell Memorial and Michael A. & Sandra S. Clark Scholarships in Environmental Journalism are both administered by the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. Both undergraduates and graduate students are eligible.
• The Gannett Foundation Hispanics in Journalism Scholarship considers applicants based on academic history and interest in journalism as a career.