Rosemary Pennington | March 31, 2008
 |
| Photo by Ann Schertz |
| Dean Brad Hamm, right, greeted journalism scholarship donors and other guests at Saturday’s celebration. |
“For me this day is about our journalism family,” Hamm said, “people who represent six or seven decades of the School of Journalism.”
Included among them were former Dean Trevor Brown and Professor Emeritus G. Cleveland Wilhoit.
“There are remarkable people here,” Hamm said. “They have great faith in you,” he told the winners and other guests, incuding families, faculty and some donors.
Many scholarships are named for donors, including the Justin M. Druck Scholarship established by the former publisher of The Pharos-Tribune and The Logansport Press. The scholarship is awarded to an incoming freshman and is good all four years he or she studies journalism at IU. This year’s winner was Megan Samuels.
“I still can’t believe it,” Samuels said of winning the award. “It’s surreal.”
“She started crying,” her father, Dale Samuels, said of his daughter’s reaction when she found out. “I’m just real proud of her. This is all I can remember her wanting to do.”
Samuels, who works on her high school newspaper, decided she wanted to be a journalist in the sixth grade. She said she looks forward to starting her studies at the School of Journalism in the fall.
“I’m excited to be coming here,” she said, “to be able to be with all these people who are as interested in doing this as I am. I looked at a lot of different schools and Indiana University was the only one that offered everything I wanted to do.”
The Ross Hazeltine Travel Scholarship will allow graduating senior Liz Dilts to travel to China.
 |
| Photo by Ann Schertz |
| Nancy Comiskey, interim director of student publications, showed publications that have won many prizes this spring. |
Dilts said she’ll teach English as well as freelance during her stay. She already has a few publications interested her type of reporting. Dilts said her ultimate goal is to work as a foreign correspondent one day. Winning the Hazeltine award is a step in that direction, a step her mother is glad she’s been given.
“I’m excited,” Geneie Dilts said. “It’s scary going to China, but it’s where everything is happening. I’m grateful IU shares her dream.”
Junior Mike Sanserino also won an award with a travel component, although he won’t be going quite as far. Sanserino is this year’s recipient of the Poynter Scholarship and Internship, and part of the award is an internship at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. The internship, Sanserino said, will be invaluable in helping him hone his craft.
“It’s the kind of on the job experience you need to get ahead in this business,” he said. “It’s an amazing opportunity to work with people who are at the top of the profession.”
In addition to the scholarships handed out Saturday, the winners of the Frances G. Wilhoit Research Awards were recognized for their outstanding research papers. The staffs of the Arbutus, the Indiana Daily Student and INside magazine also received recognition for all the awards, including two from the Society of Professional Journalists, they’ve taken home this year.
