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Diversity, scholarship program
targets high school minorities

By Dennis Cripe, IHSPA executive director

My friend, Pat McKeand, is coordinating a Diversity Scholarship and Recruitment Program on the IUPUI campus Saturday, April 30. The program, funded through grants by SPJ and the Lilly Endowment, targets minorities high school journalism students including African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics and other high school students who represent diversity in the journalism rield.

McKeand, the former publisher and adjunct professor of journalism at IUPUI, chairs the scholarship committee for the Indiana chapter of SPJ. Hopefully, IHSPA publications advisers can help make this day a success by identifying minorities in your own programs who might benefit from this outstanding program. Pat's contact information appears on the right side of this page. I hope you will contact him with student names soon.

Here's an outline of the program sent to me by Pat:

The Diversity Scholarship and Recruitment Program will be held in the new Informatics and Communications Technology Complex (ICTC). The Saturday event will include the following:

a. A seminar/panel discussion on diversity in journalism in the morning from 9:30 to 11:15 a.m. We expect to have three or four journalists from the Indianapolis area who represent diversity in the news media (newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations and other media in this area).

b. A luncheon with a keynote speaker, starting at 11:30 a.m. and continuing until 12:45 p.m. We are hoping to get Oscar Dixon, the pro basketball editor of USA Today, to be the keynote speaker. (Oscar was one of my students when I directed the Editor’s Course for the Department of Defense.)

c. A newswriting contest covering the keynote speech immediately following the luncheon, involving those minority high school journalism students who want to compete for our scholarships.

d. Another seminar/panel discussion in the afternoon from 2:15 to 3:45 p.m. And again, we expect to have three or four journalists from the Central Indiana area who represent diversity in the news media.

e. An awards program at 4 p.m. to announce the winners of the Indiana Professional Chapter SPJ scholarships.

The scholarship awards will be based on the following:

1. Resumes from the high school journalism students who want to compete for the scholarships.
2. Three samples of their work for high school journalism media, including newspapers, magazines, yearbooks, radio programs and television programs. These documents must be verified in writing by their high school journalism advisers.
3. Their coverage of the keynote speaker at the Diversity Scholarship and Recruitment Program luncheon.

The high school students who are competing for the scholarships and their advisers will receive complimentary tickets for the program, including the morning and afternoon seminars, plus the luncheon. Other people who want to attend this program will be charged only for the luncheon, and we will determine that amount once we have established the details for the luncheon.

I am also hoping that The IUPUI Sagamore and other student organizations at IUPUI will co-sponsor First Amendment Day on the campus that day so we can pay our respects to that constitutional amendment and all the freedoms it represents, including a free press.
In addition to working with your organization, our chapter plans to make contacts with the Indianapolis Association of Black Journalists (IABJ), a local Hispanic organization, a local Native American organization and other groups in our area who promote diversity in the media.