Seattle’s chapter scholarship winners
On Wednesday, I met five talented, passionate, driven students of color who can’t wait to get their first job in journalism. AAJA Seattle awarded them all Northwest Journalists of Color Scholarships. Mary Jean Spadafora is a Cherokee member and about to start college at The University of Washington. Peter Sessum worked for the State Department in Afghanistan and decided to change careers because he wanted to tell the stories of people who live there and their perspective on the U.S. military overseas. Tom Giratikanon couldn’t make it because he is at a Dow Jones workshop in Western Kentucky, but he’s one to watch. Giratikanon has started his own publications in high school at at Northwestern, where he is a student now. Olivia Hernandez took the bus from Yakima to Seattle to make the reception. Michelle Ericksen has incredible energy and enthusiasm — I would love to have her as a colleague.
As keynote speaker Jerry Brewer (sports columnist for The Seattle Times) said to the students, “We need you.” We won’t be here forever. But journalism will be. I am bullish on the industry’s long-term future, and that’s why AAJA is going to keep investing, inspiring and training future journalists of color.
We’ve been awarding students with this scholarship since 1986. Past winners: Janet Tu (The Seattle Times, former AAJA national secretary), Hari Sreenivasan (Dallas correspondent for CBS network news), Naomi Ishisaka (editor in chief, ColorsNW) and many many more.
Our NJC endowment will serve as AAJA’s model to finish the National Endowment. The NJC scholarship was started in 1986 by local leaders like Lori Matsukawa (KING TV), who raised $5,000 each year to fund the scholarships. Four years ago, I launched a campaign to endow the scholarships forever and chaired a two-year drive. Sanjay Bhatt (Seattle chapter co-president) and Susan Han (Seattle Channel) finished the endowment last year. We are proof that you can raise money in a down economy and a down industry by reaching out to fellow journalists (of all colors) who support diversity and to our own friends and family. We did not tap non-media corporate donors. We didn’t want to set that example for the students. Even so, we raised $100,000 in four years.
If you’re interested in participating, come join us at UNITY. Jeanne Mariani-Belding, AAJA national president, will be leading a meeting in her suite about how we’re going to reach our endowment goal. Just shoot me an e-mail at sharonpianchan@gmail.com.
