Gabriel Scarlett, undergraduate student at Western Kentucky University, is the winner of the Bob Baxter Scholarship, which may be awarded to either a graduate or undergraduate student.

Accomplishments
I was chosen as the Denver Post’s summer photo intern for 2017. I have been awarded the Dave Martin Student Projects Grant from the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar. I recently placed 2nd in the “Hearst Photojournalism I” contest for single images. I have placed in the “Feature” category in College Photographer of the Year and the “Week’s Work” and “Portrait” categories of the Kentucky News Photographers Association contests. I have been chosen for scholarships from the WKU Photojournalism Program, Mountain Workshops, and Northern Short Course.

Career Goals
Over the past semester, I have been asked this question quite a bit. After some of my work began to be recognized and I received my first choice internship at The Denver Post, I have frequently been asked what is next. I shy away from verbalizing my concrete goals, but I still hold them inside me and think about them every single day. I like to take things one step at a time, so in the short term I hope to see my work on the Navajo Nation published nationally in order to shed light on an utterly underreported issue affecting minority Native Americans. My next hope is to have a fulfilling summer in Colorado and to pursue several projects I have begun researching. For the next two summers I hope to secure internships at either the LA Times, Washington Post, New York Times or at National Geographic through the CPOY competition. I aim for these institutions not as much for their titles as for the power of their journalism and artistry of their photography. I want to taste what it would be like to work beside those who inspire me most at the publications I believe and to which I subscribe. I live my life hoping to create work that facilitates discussion and understanding amongst different people groups, religions, and economic classes. I cannot pretend like I have my whole life mapped out already, so my usual answer when people ask “Where do you want to work? ” is “Anywhere I would be able to make the work I love. ” That is not to say that I am good enough now, but that I know my own drive and my distaste for complacency will take me wherever I need to go to make the work that I care about.


Portfolio

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