DURHAM, NC (June 21, 2012) – Six college students have been selected by the National Press Photographers Foundation to each receive $2,000 scholarships, professor emeritus Dr. James W. Brown of Indiana University announced today. Brown is the NPPF scholarship chair.
Brooke Stevens, a graduate student at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, is the winner of the Kit C. King Scholarship, which is exclusively for photojournalists who are pursuing an advanced degree.
Carter McCall of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill won the Reid Blackburn Scholarship, and Yasmeen Smalley of the Rochester Institute of Technology won the Bob East Scholarship.
Meg Roussos won the Jimi Lott Scholarship, and Will Parson won the Bob Baxter Scholarship. Both are studying at Ohio University.
Sam Oldenburg of Western Kentucky University won the NPPF Still & Multimedia Scholarship.
The Bob East, Reid Blackburn, Bob Baxter, Kit C. King, and Jimi Lott Scholarships are endowed by donations from friends, family, and news organizations. The Foundaiton funds the Still & Multimedia Scholarship.
The Foundation’s scholarships are named after people who played an important role in visual journalism or NPPA’s history, and their memories live on by supporting undergraduate and graduate students’ educational goals.
Bob East was a colorful and widely known veteran photographer for the Miami Herald who died in 1985 after more than 45 years in the profession. He was NPPA’s national secretary, and he mentored many interns.
Reid Blackburn was only 27 when he died on assignment while covering the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. The scholarship was established in his memory by his newspaper, The Columbian of Vancouver, WA.
Bob Baxter was a New Jersey photographer who was paralyzed in an auto accident, but he continued to pursue photojournalism education and established the scholarship for undergraduate and graduate students before his death.
Kit C. King was chief photographer for The Spokesman Review and Chronicle. A compassionate photographer who cared about the people he covered, gritty documentary photojournalism was his trademark. He died in a Snake River fishing accident in 1991.
Jimi Lott was a Seattle Times staff photographer for more than 20 years. Known for his keen eye, compassion, and boundless energy, his work focused on the less fortunate in the Seattle community, including the homeless and those with mental illness. He died in 2005 at age 52.
The NPPF Booster Club, made up of Life NPPA members, has provided significant funding for these scholarships over the years.