The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh held its annual scholarship luncheon at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh on May 30, honoring winners Jessica Tully of Penn State and Joshua Axelrod of the University of Maryland, both rising seniors.
Jess, a current Post-Gazette intern, and Josh, who has written for the P-G and is the son of former P-G sports writer Phil Axelrod and current online features editor Sharon Eberson, each received checks for $1,500 and a letter of commendation from the Guild.
Jess was accompanied by her parents Michelle and Bernard of Marshall Twp. Phil and Sharon accompanied Josh.
The scholarship committee consisted of chairwoman Pat Peters, Kaitlynn Riely, Tim Grant, Jim Heinrich and David Fink. Special thanks to Lexi Belculfine who got the message about the scholarship out to colleges and school newspapers like never before.
Begun in 1996, the Guild’s scholarship program has thus far donated $46,000 to 35 future journalists.
Our 2013 winners:
JESS has been a police, fire and courts reporter for the Daily Collegian, where she has also been the opinion page editor, a social media producer and a campus editor.
She also has worked as a freelancer and intern for USA TODAY and as a summer editorial employee for Bauer Publishing in New Jersey, where she wrote a blog, and updated M Magazine’s website.
She belongs to Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society, the National Society of Leadership and Spanish Club.
JOSH has been editor in chief of College Magazine, where he leads a team of five student editors and oversees a staff of 35. He also writes regularly for the publication. The online publication tracks 150,000 views per month.
Among other things, he has been a sportswriting intern for the Bleacher report, for which he has also done photography and video and has been a special sections intern for the Washington D.C. bureau of McClatchy publications and has had stories published in the Florida Courier, Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Denver Post and Miami Herald. He has also done some freelance work for the Post-Gazette.
For more pictures from the luncheon, see Facebook.