NSNC Scholarship 2016
By Mike Leonard
Scholarship Chairman
Having been an adjunct in journalism at Indiana University for nearly 30 years, I can say with authority that there are bright, committed and good college columnists out there, and they tend to flip an assignment on a dime. Deadline Wednesday? Knock it off Tuesday night.
So with that in mind, I’m asking you to ping your alma mater, your local colleges and universities, and any person or institution you want to put on notice, and remind them that entries will be due a month’s end for the 18th annual Jeff Zaslow College Columnist Award, sponsored by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and presented by the NSNC Education Foundation.
The NSNCEF offers an annual $1,000 scholarship that is given to the winner of our national college columnist competition. The top columnist also receives a trip to the NSNC’s 40th annual conference, which this year will be staged June 23-26, at the iconic Hotel Angeleno in Los Angeles.
An entry consists of three columns published, in print or electronically, between March 1, 2015, and Feb. 28, 2016. Submissions are due by March 30, 2016. There is no fee to enter.
The contest is open to undergraduates, including seniors, who write bylined general interest, editorial, or specialized columns (including sports, humor, business and the arts).
Previous winners have expressed appreciation for the resume builder, the contacts in the industry and the nice combination of speeches and panels at the conference, mixed with sightseeing in each year’s host city, food and a convivial atmosphere.
It would be greatly appreciated if you could pass along the PDF of the scholarship flyer and encourage that it be posted wherever appropriate, in a newsroom or otherwise, to get the information to eligible college columnists. The column timeframe would cover spring, summer and fall 2015, as well as current columnists in winter 2016.
The scholarship and award were named to honor NSNC member and contributor Jeff Zaslow, the best-selling author and Wall Street Journal columnist who died in an automobile accident in 2012.
Entry forms including rules can be downloaded as a PDF.
Snail mail entries go to NSNC Education Foundation, P.O. Box 411532, San Francisco, CA 94141. Cyber submissions go to director@columnists.com. Questions? Email NSNC Education Chairman Mike Leonard at michael.leonard@comcast.net .
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This piece first was published in the March 2016 issue of The Columnist, the monthly membership newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
