2012 NPPF-NPPA Career Expansion Scholarships Winners

DURHAM, NC (December 18, 2012) – The National Press Photographers Foundation’s board of directors is pleased to announce today the five winners of the NPPF–NPPA Career Expansion Scholarships.

The scholarship winners are Candace Barbot, Ben Fredman, Andrea Johnston, Rebecca McEntee, and Carolyn Yashur.

The winners will receive a $5,000 scholarship in support of their education expenses.

Funding for the NPPF–NPPA Career Expansion Scholarships is supported by a grant from the Author’s Coalition of America. The grant supports photojournalists who have at least three years experience and who have returned to school to enhance their skills, or move in a new direction, using their background in photojournalism.

Candace Barbot is a student in the MFA Social Documentary Film Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She writes that her degree program, “…offers the training and guidance I need to produce projects that matter to me, projects that simultaneously have something to say and are beautiful to watch.” She earned her B.A. in Literature from the University of Miami. Her experience includes two years with UPI and 21 years as a staff photojournalist for The Miami Herald. She earned two Pulitzers with Herald teams and was a Pulitzer Finalist for Feature Photography.

Benjamin Fredman is working toward a MFA in Film Production at Florida State University. “The underlying theme of both narrative cinematography and documentary photojournalism is essentially the same–compelling, storytelling imagery to evoke emotions from an audience,” Fredman wrote. He earned his B.A. in Journalism at the University of Missouri, Magna Cum Laude. His experience includes high school teaching; Senior Photography Manager China Project Leader, Rustic Pathways; and staff photojournalist for The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, VA.

Andrea J. Wright Johnston is seeking an M.A. in Family Therapy from Lewis and Clark College. She wrote, “After many years as a journalist and objective observer, it is empowering to now be able to enter a profession where I can get involved in changing lives through family therapy service.” It is not surprising she uses photography as a tool in her counseling as she was a staff and multimedia producer for the Statesman Journal (Salem, OR) and a staff photographer for The Seattle Times. She attended Portland Community College to study counseling, multimedia and video. She earned the B.A. in journalism from the University of Oregon.

Rebecca McEntee is a Ph.D. student in Theory and Research with an emphasis on visual communication at the University of Texas at Austin. Her M.A. and Bachelor degrees in journalism also are from the University of Texas. She was with the Austin American-Statesman for two decades and for the last six of those years she was a photography editor. She wrote, “That position inspired questions of research as I edited through the start of the war with Iraq. When a buyout was likely I planned to return to school and found the research and theory program helpful in answering questions I had as an editor. I hope to teach and inspire the next generation of visual communicators.” She has been chief photographer at The Round Rock Leader, staff photographer at the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, and a one-person crew at NBC Channel 4 (KJAC) in Port Arthur, TX.

Carolyn Yaschur is a Ph.D. candidate with a research emphasis in visual communication at the University of Texas at Austin. Her dissertation, “Second-level agenda-setting effects of images and words,” is in progress. She expects to teach photojournalism guided by her research and related to her practical experience as a photojournalist. She writes, “In an era in which virtually everyone has a camera and can call themselves news photographers, I strongly believe in the value of solid photojournalism training and in teaching the ethics, core values and importance of visual storytelling to the next generation.” Her Master’s is from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and she is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Gettysburg College with a major in history.  She was a staff photographer at the Kitsap Sun (Bremerton, WA) and The State (Columbia, SC).

The selection committee was comprised of C. Thomas Hardin, president of the Foundation, and James W. Brown, professor emeritus, Indiana University and NPPF scholarships chair. Both are members of the NPPF board of directors.

The Foundation congratulates these students for their demonstrated excellence and promise for the future.