From left to right: Josh Croup, scholarship winner; Allison Schubert, guest; Tim Grant, PG staff writer; Janine Faust, guest; Ed Blazina, PG staff writer; Amanda Reed, scholarship winner; Nicole Pampena, scholarship winner; Daniel Moore, PG staff writer; Dan Gigler, PG staff writer; Alyssa Brown, PG copy editor/paginator; and Courtney Linder, PG staff writer.
Since 1996, the Guild has awarded more than $64,000 to 46 college students who plan to pursue careers in journalism who either live in the Pittsburgh area or attend a college or university within the coverage area of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The money can be used to pay tuition, purchase books and electronics or to help defray the expense of participating in an unpaid internship.
This year, the Guild awarded three $1,000 scholarships to:
From left to right: Scholarship winners Josh Croup, Nicole Pampena and Amanda Reed.
-Amanda Reed, a senior at the University of Pittsburgh studying nonfiction writing and communications, who hopes to work for a magazine one day
-Nicole Pampena, a junior studying journalism at Point Park University with an affinity for broadcast
-Josh Croup, a senior broadcast reporting major at Point Park University who hopes to work as a local news or sports reporter
In early April, Guild leadership and members of the scholarship committee attended a luncheon with the winners at The Foundry on the North Shore to celebrate.
The funding for each scholarship is raised through “Off the Record” a satirical production of the Newspaper Guild, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists. In addition to supporting the scholarship, the primary beneficiary of this effort is the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
The winners are chosen by a volunteer committee of Guild members who score entries based on academic achievement, quality of journalism in the writing samples submitted, letters of recommendation and a personal essay.
From left to right: Allison Schubert, guest; Josh Croup, scholarship recipient; Nicole Pampena, scholarship recipient; Amanda Reed, scholarship recipient; and Janine Faust, guest.
Judges this year were Post-Gazette staff writers Courtney Linder, Daniel Moore and Tim Grant.
The scholarship is named for Sally Kalson, a late colleague, friend and Guild leader who sadly passed away.
A reporter for the Post-Gazette for more than 30 years, Sally was an award-winning Post-Gazette columnist and a longtime Guild officer and negotiator who wrote for the PG and worked for the Guild the way she lived life — with grace, humility, and a commitment to social and economic justice, civil rights, women’s rights, and human rights.