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Association for Women Journalists


AWJ-Chicago Scholars 2010                                                                 Donate

Lauren Bohn admits to a "proclivity to report in seemingly dangerous neighborhoods and countries." Bohn traveled with the nuns from her suburban Philadelphia high school to construct a school on the Haitian/Dominican Republic border. During her undergraduate study at New York University, she helped facilitate exchanges with Ghana and Abu Dhabi. She held internships with CBS News, Time magazine and CNN, and worked with Soledad O'Brien on the "Latino in America" and "Black in America" documentaries and with Christiane Amanpour on the "Generation Islam" doc.
"I was doing what I do best: telling stories to broaden public discourse," said the graduate student at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.

Whitney Harding, who hails from The Woodlands, Texas, a suburb north of Houston, is a self-described “sports junkie.” She was a competitive gymnast for 17 years and received a scholarship to be on North Carolina State University’s NCAA gymnastics team. After suffering a career-ending injury, Whitney transferred to Southern Methodist University, where she channeled her passion for sports into sports reporting and graduated with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism in 2008. Harding is now a graduate broadcast journalism student at Northwestern and plans to use her scholarship for Medill's Global Journalism Residency Program in South Africa.

AWJ-Chicago Scholars 2009                                                                 

Kalyn Belsha will receive her master’s degree in interactive storytelling/new media and urban issues from the Medill School of Journalism in August 2009. In two years as a staff reporter at a student newspaper at Boston College newspaper, where she received her undergraduate degree, Belsha covered a beat that focused on equality for social minorities, and she also wrote about changes in mental health practices at the college after the Virginia Tech shooting. She interned for a publishing group in Boston and wrote travel and art features for an airline publication. She also interned for “City Limits,” a non-profit activist journal in New York City.

Annie Martin will receive her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Medill in June as part of the accelerated master’s program. She has interned with “The Oregonian” in Portland , Ore., “Kitsap Sun” in Bremerton, Wash., and “Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce” in Seattle, Wash. At Northwestern, Martin has worked for “The Daily Northwestern” for three years, as both city editor and assistant editor. She has also been an intern for Northwestern’s alumni magazine.

AWJ-Chicago Scholars 2008

Joyce Lee says that as a journalist, she is many people. “A reader, devouring stories both familiar and foreign, ...an idealist, optimistic that awareness precedes understanding, which in turn provokes good deeds, a leader, confident that a shrinking world does not cast the individual in shadows but allows her to rise up from a sea of resources. A business woman, confident that profits and responsibility should go hand in hand...".

Joyce, a sophomore at Northwestern, has worked at the Daily Northwestern as a reporter on general, city education and city crime desks. She interned last summer at TVB News in Hong Kong and produced and reported on a half hour show. A year ago she founded Stitch magazine, where she serves as editor in chief. She is working with Medill faculty to form a media entrepreneurship body to incubate student ventures and advise students on editorial, design and business.

“I don’t remember when I have been more delighted to ...write a recommendation for a student ...because today I get to tell someone else about Joyce Lee,” Medill Senior Associate Dean Richard Roth wrote. “I have known her to be smart, serious, sensible and something most students aren’t: entrepreneurial. .. Not only did she get Stitch magazine published once, but she has done it again, and this time even better.” But not just focused on a life of fashion, she wants to be a journalist who makes a difference.


Edited from Suzanne Hanney’s comments upon awarding Joyce Lee her scholarship at AWJ’s annual meeting, January 2008.



Kat Glass started writing for the University of Chicago Maroon within two weeks of arriving on campus and by the end of freshman year had been promoted to news editor. Last spring she was elected editor-in-chief and under her leadership, the Chicago Maroon won the highest honor from the Associated Collegiate Press: the Newspaper Pacemaker Award for 2007. She supervised a staff of 50, edited their work and trained new reporters. She also restructured the paper’s editorial board to separate news and editorial sections to stop the unethical practice of having news editors write the unsigned editorials.

“Kat Glass is certainly one of the most outstanding young journalists in this area or any area of the country,” said journalism advisor and documentary producer Kathy Anderson. “She is an aggressive reporter and a fine writer. She has sought and won major internships every summer, including the Times Picayune in New Orleans and Religion News Service, a national wire in Washington, D.C. At the Times Picayune, she pitched and wrote stories about continued recovery efforts post-Katrina. Her work was so well received that she continues as a freelance reporter.

She loves breaking news and deadlines and admits she feels like she’s cheating by getting paid to work in a newsroom every day. ‘Working as a storyteller-giving people information they need to make informed decisions – is a humbling responsibility. It’s difficult, it’s stressful and it’s crucial in a democracy. It also happens to be a lot of fun.” She is currently trying to secure an internship at a daily newspaper and then will start at a smaller daily newspaper and see where that experience takes her. “And I couldn’t be more excited by the whole process.”


Edited from Suzanne Hanney’s comments upon awarding Joyce Lee her scholarship at AWJ’s annual meeting, January 2008.

2007
Rene Edde
Columbia College

Janelle Mascarenas
Loyola University

Mary Brigid Sweeney
Northwestern University

2006
Jessica Noll
Columbia College

Shayla Reaves
Northwestern University

Junae Diamond Weathersby
Columbia College


2005
Sumangali Somaskanda
Northwestern University



















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