Student Scholarships

Supporting the next generation of photojournalists through financial assistance and educational opportunities. The National Press Photographers Foundation offers several scholarships to university and college students pursuing careers in photojournalism and visual storytelling while studying at four-year institutions. Our programs provide financial assistance, mentorship opportunities, and professional development resources to help emerging photographers succeed in the field.

How the Scholarships Application Works

Scholarship applications opened Dec. 3, 2025 and closed on Feb. 6, 2026. Next year’s dates will be similar.

We offer eleven (11) $2,500 scholarships.

Who is eligible?

Undergraduate and graduate students enrolled for the spring semester of 2026
and attending a four-year college or university in the United States.
International students residing in the U.S. are eligible.

The deadline for entries is 5:59 P.M. Eastern time, Friday, February 6, 2026.
Recipients will be notified via email within a month of the deadline.

NPPF Scholarship Application

NPPF scholarships are awarded to encourage those with the talent and dedication
to photojournalism and who need financial help to continue their studies.

All photojournalists are considered for a pool of nine scholarships: the Bob Baxter
Scholarship, Blackburn/East Scholarship, James Brown & Frank Folwell
Scholarship, Liane Enkelis Scholarship, C. Thomas Hardin and Mary C. Hardin
Scholarship, King/Lott Scholarship, Mary Lou Foy Still and Multimedia Scholarship,
Sony Electronics Photojournalism Scholarship and the Xan Korman Scholarship.

Video Storytellers are additionally considered for the TV Scholarship by including at least two video
files in their portfolio.

Student Leaders who have demonstrated significant leadership in their field and
elsewhere are additionally considered for the Clarkson Scholarship the by writing an additional essay and
securing an additional letter of reference.

A jury of top professional picture editors evaluate each application and award each named scholarship according to their determination of who best matches the donor’s criteria.

See more about the amazing people our scholarships acknowledge at the links below.

Preparing to apply

A recommendation is required from a professor familiar with the student’s work.

Obtain a letter recommending you and describing your qualifications from a
professor/lecturer familiar with your photojournalism.
The letter must be on university letterhead, dated 2026, and include the
professor’s signature. Save file in PDF format.
Applicants for the Clarkson Scholarship need a second recommendation letter
from a non-academic person familiar with their leadership qualities.
You will upload your letter(s) as PDFs to Picter, our online contest site (link
is below).
You must complete a form that will be your CV for the NPPF submission on Picter .

DOWNLOAD NPPF CV SUBMISSION FORM

It requires:

Contact information
Academic standing (including GPA)
Campus news media experience
Confirmation that you adhere to NPPA’s Code of Ethics
Three or four, one-page essays typed into form (do NOT use URL links to cloud) about:
- Your journey as a student photojournalist
- Your need for financial assistance
- Your career aspirations
- And if applying for the Clarkson Scholarship, Your leadership skills and
  experiences

Be sure to save the CV form with filename: “yourlastname_yourfirstname_University.PDF” (ie. Brown_James_IUPUI). Confirm that
your entries were saved to the file before submission. Upload this PDF to the Picter site where it asks for NPPF-specific CV.

Portfolio Preparation

Click this link: https://nppf.org/online-portfolio-image-preparation/ and follow all instructions carefully. Our online portfolio system will reject images that do not meet these specifications.

General Portfolio Submission Instructions

Your portfolio should show your storytelling ability.

A portfolio may include three types of visual message: Single Pictures, Picture
Stories and Videos. You may submit all three or just two or just one type.

The maximum number of image files is 24 (JPEG and MP4/MOV). The maximum number of
video files is 10 and the maximum length of each video is 10 minutes.

Examples:

10 Singles + one, 12-image picture story + 2 videos
Two 12-image picture stories
10 videos
24 singles

All still photographs must have captions and required meta data in the JPEG
flies, and conform to image size requirements. See: for requirements.

Image Permission

This is an educational website. We post winning portfolios here so that other
students may learn from them. Applying for our scholarships gives NPPF
permission to publish your images on our websites and use your pictures on our
social media platforms to promote our scholarship program. You retain the
copyright to all your images.

Completing your application at Picter.com

Once you have completed your CV using our PDF form (see above), obtained your
letter(s) of recommendation and properly prepared your image/video files, go to
our Picter site: https://site.picter.com/2026-nppf-college-scholarships

The Picter site asks for

your name,
date of birth,
permanent address,
personal email address,
personal mobile phone number.

Critically important: Use the “Biography” field on Picter to indicate that you
want to be considered for the Clarkson by typing the word “Clarkson” into the
field. You do not need to write a biography.

Follow directions and upload your materials as indicated.

Please address any questions about this application process or system issues to Dr. James Kelly, at jkelly@nppf.org

NPPF Scholarship Terms and Conditions

Eligibility

Undergraduate and graduate students enrolled for the spring semester of 2026 and attending a four-year college or university in the United States. International students residing in the U.S. are eligible.

Expectations and Verifications

Confirmation that the student’s conduct and work are consistent with the National Press Photographers Association’s Code of Ethics.
Completion of the NPPF CV form located at:
DOWNLOAD NPPF CV SUBMISSION FORM
uploaded to Picter.
A recommendation letter on university letterhead describing applicant’s qualifications signed by a professor/lecturer.
Applicants for the Clarkson Scholarship need a second recommendation letter from a non-academic person familiar with their leadership qualities.
Recipient’s application information and submitted documents are subject to verification by the NPPF, whose decisions are final and binding in all matters related to the scholarship.
If the NPPF finds cause to disqualify a submission after a scholarship has been announced or awarded, the scholarship may be rescinded.
Decisions regarding the eligibility and integrity of all submissions reside solely with the NPPF and those decisions shall be final.

Intellectual Property

Submitted materials are confidential and will be used only for judging purposes except for awarded scholarships.
The recipient retains the ownership and copyright of their work product.
The recipient grants the NPPF the right to use their name, likeness, biographical information, submitted images and/or videos from the application and project images on NPPF’s website, in any social media publicizing the NPPF programs and publications, including but not limited to educational, promotional and fundraising purposes at the NPPF’s sole discretion, without additional permission or consideration, or notification to the grant recipient or any third party.
The recipient also grants the NPPF its licensees, affiliates and their designees an irrevocable, non-exclusive, perpetual royalty-free license to use elements of their project (or the project in its entirety) on the NPPF’s website, on social media and as promotional materials to fundraise and promote its scholarships and grants.
The recipient also hereby grants the NPPF the right to make their project (or any and all elements thereof) available for educational purposes, including to colleges and universities of the NPPF’s choosing.

Ethics

An entry may not contain images that have been manipulated digitally in violation of generally accepted professional photojournalistic standards.
Applicants should review and adhere to the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Code of Ethics concerning image manipulation.
The NPPF, in its sole discretion, retains the right to disqualify any entry found to include manipulated images or staged situations.
Any use of Photoshop’s Content Aware feature is disqualifying manipulation.
The NPPF, in its sole discretion, may exercise its right to rescind the entire award amount if the grantee is found to have manipulated images beyond what is professionally accepted, as noted in the NPPA Code of Ethics.

Financial

Payment of any taxes and expenses are solely the responsibility of the recipient.
The NPPF will deposit $2,500 into each student awardee’s university/college bursar account or mail a check for $2,000 to the recipient, as instructed.
Students are responsible for providing account information or mailing address upon notification of the award.