Journalism Education Association names 2011 Future Teacher Scholarship winners
Three more educators-in-training joined the ranks of the Journalism Education Association’s Future Teacher Scholarship winners, bringing to 27 the number earning this award since it was first presented in 2000.
Each of the students will receive $1,000 Nov. 20 at the JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention in Minneapolis. They are Sarah Bergsieker, senior at Ball State University, Muncie, Ind.; Kathryn Dodge, graduate working on teacher certification at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich., and Lindsay Cameron, junior at Ashland (Ohio) University.
Judges selected this year’s recipients from an impressive list of applicants. Each has worked with high school journalists already — through a student JEA chapter, summer workshops or on a commercial newspaper’s award-winning teen page. Each is an upperclassman or graduate student whose college grades and activities show a solid interest in becoming a journalism educator.
Bergsieker hails from Columbus (Ind.) North High School — one of the “top scholastic journalism programs in the country” as one of her letters of recommendation said. Her experiences there included serving as executive editor of content for the school’s award-winning yearbook and participating in summer workshops and three JEA/NSPA conventions.
Now she is co-president of the Ball State student chapter of JEA, participating in J-Invasions when members of the group help Muncie-area high schools, and working as office assistant in the Ball State University Journalism Workshops office.
“I want to teach because I want to instill the same love for journalism in my students that not so long ago my high school journalism teacher instilled in me,” Bergsieker wrote.
Dodge is working to complete her teaching certification year. Although from a small, private high school with a somewhat limited journalism program, she joined her school’s yearbook staff and later spent a week at Indiana University’s journalism camp. “That reinforced my desire to continue learning about the subject and inspired me to apply to colleges with strong journalism programs,” she said.
She became a volunteer counselor for Michigan Interscholastic Press Association last summer, spending time with editors of the newspaper she is helping to advise this year and watching veteran advisers and learning from them. One of her letters of recommendation comes from Sara-Beth O’Connor, herself a 2006 winner of this award, who wrote that in the educational environment where there are cutbacks of courses not part of the core, “Kathryn Dodge will be one of the future teachers to keep media courses alive.”
Cameron had media experiences as a teenager which were in a slightly different venue than previous award-winners. For four years, Cameron reported, drew cartoons and took photos for Page One, the award-winning teen section of her local newspaper, the Tribune Chronicle in Warren, Ohio. According to one of her letters of recommendation, the ultimate test of her dedication and skills came when the long-time teen page adviser was promoted and the assistant metro editor became their new adviser.
“Lindsay was instrumental in maintaining the staff’s production and making the transition smooth,” said Sue Shafer, the Tribune Chronicle’s manager of educational services. Cameron not only worked with the younger staff members, but she conducted journalism workshops open to area high school students, teaching them to write leads and reviews, and she now trains younger students for Ashland’s student newspaper, particularly freshmen. She is working on plans to connect the local Ashland Times-Gazette and the Ashland High School media so she can support teen journalists there.
The Journalism Education Association Inc. is the only independent national scholastic journalism organization for teachers and media advisers. It is headquartered at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kan.