Press Release

NAHJ Announces 2007 Scholarship Recipients

Media Contact: Lisa Goodnight, (202) 662-1274

WASHINGTON - The National Association of Hispanic Journalists awarded $100,000 in scholarships this fall to 35 students pursuing a career in journalism, reaching a total of $1.4 million given to students since its first scholarship checks were issued 20 years ago.

Many in this year’s class of scholarship recipients – which rounds out a total of 525 aspiring journalists since 1987 – struggle daily through personal hardship to forge ahead with their commitment to give Latinos more of a voice in the news media. The scholarships and part of NAHJ’s educational programs are made possible through the Rubén Salazar Scholarship Fund, established in honor of the Latino journalism pioneer killed by a Los Angeles sheriff deputy’s tear gas projectile while covering an anti-war demonstration in 1970.

NAHJ is able to offer these scholarships in 2007 thanks to the generous personal donations from María Elena Salinas, co-anchor of Noticiero Univisión and syndicated columnist, Geraldo Rivera, senior correspondent for Fox News Channel, and grants from the Samuel Newhouse Foundation, the Ford Motor Company, CNN, Univisión and The Washington Post. NAHJ will continue to raise money for the fund at its 19th Annual Scholarship Banquet on March 13, 2008 at the Hilton New York in Manhattan.

NAHJ also disbursed another $125,000 this fall to 33 students who had continuing scholarships from previous years, including 25 students supported by a $335,000 grant from CNN received in 2005.

“These scholarships are the key to getting more of our young brothers and sisters to not just follow in our footsteps, but go way beyond where we have in this new journalism world full of troubling and exciting changes,” said Iván Román, NAHJ’s Executive Director. “The backgrounds and experiences of these scholarship winners are precisely the kind we need to bring into the country’s newsrooms. We are glad our supporters join us in this effort.”

Those selected include students who slept on crowded floors with other immigrants or in church attics when times got tough, who worked part-time or for free in television newsrooms while putting themselves through school. The class of 2007 includes students who have worked as nannies or in agricultural fields, who quit college to join the Marines after 9/11, and who fought to establish Spanish-language newspapers in their local Latino communities or their majority white college campus. Some of the scholarship winners have persevered despite personal and family struggles with disease, alcoholism or mental illness, while others nurtured their dreams by delivering newspapers at 4 a.m. and learning from relatives who are or wanted to become journalists, but never got the chance.

Those selected, ranging from freshmen to graduate school students, come from 26 schools in 12 states and are a mix of 11 nationalities or ethnicities, representing some of the diversity within the Hispanic community. They also include non-Latino students who have dedicated their education and their journalism work to covering the Latino community and Latin America.

Since the association established its scholarship and educational programs in 1987, NAHJ has provided financial assistance and/or training at its annual conventions to more than 1,000 students to help boost the number of Latinos in newsrooms and create a path towards achieving more fair and accurate coverage of the Hispanic community.

If you’d like to join María Elena Salinas and Geraldo Rivera and our growing list of more than 300 individual supporters of NAHJ’s educational, professional development and advocacy programs, please go to www.nahj.org/supportnahj/25Fund/25fund.shtml

NAHJ is pleased to announce the 2007 scholarship recipients:

Rubén Salazar Scholarships (one-time scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $2,000, open to any journalism student)

Jael Daysi Zeballos, George Mason University
Rocio Lopez, Columbia University
Genaro Serna III (Trey), University of Texas – Pan American
Guadalupe Rosales, Illinois State University
Arlinda Arriaga, University of North Texas
Joanna Suarez, University of Miami
Alexandra Santiago, Hofstra University
Ingrid Rivera, Ohio State University
Rigoberto Montenegro, University of Texas – Pan American
Hernan Alonso Yanez, California State University, Northridge
Diana Bosch, University of Central Florida

Samuel Newhouse Foundation Scholarships (one-time, scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $5,000)

Carol Schliesinger, University of Texas at Austin
Matthew Mireles, Columbia University
Jaime Velasquez, University of Texas at Austin
Jose Lopez, University of Arkansas
Laura Harlin, University of Texas at Austin
Wendy Muniz, University of Miami
Roberta Flores, Texas A & M, Kingsville
Ana Ley, University of Texas – Pan American

María Elena Salinas Scholarships (one-time scholarships for $5,000, partly matched by Univisión, for students pursuing careers in Spanish-language broadcast journalism)

Casandra Hernandez, East Los Angeles College
Laura Tellado, University of Central Florida
Jaime Zea, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Geraldo Rivera Scholarship (one time, $5,000 scholarship)

Jacqueline Guzman, California State University, Northridge

Ford Motor Company Scholarships (one-time scholarships ranging from $2,000 to $4,000, open to undergraduate students)

Erika Flores, Arizona State University
Lizbeth Gonzalez, California State University, Los Angeles
Stella Nichols, Columbia College Chicago
Karen Rivera, Ramapo College of New Jersey
Diana Callahan, St. John Fisher College, Rochester
Sarina Morales, Syracuse University
Ricardo Gomez, University of California, Berkeley
Alejandro Gonzalez, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

The Washington Post Scholarship (one time, $2,500 scholarship for incoming freshmen)

Benjamin Blumberg, University of Maryland at College Park

CNN Scholarships (one-time $3,000 scholarships)

Grace Florez, Columbus State University
Andres Caballero, Notre Dame De Namur University, Belmont, California
Mariano Castillo, Columbia University

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