One week left! NJC DEADLINE is May 1st.

Time’s almost up!  The deadline is May 1, 2011.  (Postmarked by that date is fine)

Don’t put it off!! Last year we awarded four students with more than $2500 in scholarships and stipends.  

Three scholarships are available:

Northwest Journalists of Color Scholarship:  Awards up to $2,500 in scholarship money to students who intend to pursue careers in journalism.  Other eligibility:  Either you’re a WA resident heading to college, or a college student in WA.  That’s it.

Founders’ Scholarship: Covers a student registration fee for the 2011 AAJA National Convention, which is Aug. 10-13 in Detroit.  A small stipend for travel and accommodations also is available.  Eligibility:  You are, or will become, a student member of AAJA. For more information about the convention, click here.

AAJA Seattle/911 Media Arts Student Scholarship:  We’re awarding two scholarships to AAJA Seattle student members for up to $400 in class costs, lab and rental fees at the 911 Media Arts Center in Seattle’s University District.

Click here to download a copy of the application. For more information contact scholarship chair Owen Lei at olei@king5.com.

Again the deadline in May 1!  Here’s where you send your applications!
AAJA Seattle Scholarships
c/o Owen Lei, KING-TV
333 Dexter Ave N
Seattle, WA 98109

May 2 deadline for Stanford Chen internship grants

Summer internships are a great way to practice journalism and learn the ins and outs of newsrooms today. Problem is, many internships these days don’t pay — or they don’t pay enough for interns to cover their basic living expenses.

AAJA awards Stanford Chen internship grants to help defray those expenses. The grant provides $1,750 to a college student who is an intern at small- to medium-size media.

This year’s application deadline is May 2. Download an application at aaja.org.

Stanford Chen was a California-born city boy who was introduced to journalism by working on his high school newspaper at Oakland Tech. After graduating with a journalism degree from Indiana University, Stan’s professional career began at The Bellingham, Wash., Herald. From there he moved to the Daily Journal of Commerce, a business publication in Portland, Ore., as its editor before landing at The Oregonian, Oregon’s largest metropolitan daily. Stan could do anything journalistically, and he frequently was ahead of trends: At The Herald he wrote an environmental column, long before the environment became front-page news; he also was the paper’s sports editor, copy editor and photographer. At The Oregonian, he started as a part-time copy editor, soon was hired full time, doing night page makeup, then became deputy editor of the Forum editorial section before returning to his real love, reporting. He remained a reporter even after he was stricken with cancer. He died in 1999 at the age of 51.  (Source: AAJA)

Learn more about Stanford Chen at AAJA.org.

2011 Scholarship Applications now available!

AAJA Seattle is now accepting applications for its student scholarships.  The deadline is May 1, 2011.

Last year we awarded four students with more than $2500 in scholarships and stipends.  Who is going to win it this year?

About the scholarships:

Northwest Journalists of Color Scholarship: Since its inception in 1986, more than 100 students from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds have received grants to support their studies. This program awards up to $2,500 in scholarship money to students who intend to pursue careers in journalism. Eligible applicants are students who will attend a college or university in Washington in the fall and Washington state residents or seniors attending a high school in Washington who will attend an accredited college or university in the fall.

Founders’ Scholarship: The Founders’ Scholarship was established in 2000 to honor Frank Abe, Ron Chew and Lori Matsukawa, who founded the AAJA Seattle chapter in 1985. The scholarship covers a student registration fee for the 2010 AAJA National Convention, which will be Aug. 4-7 in Los Angeles. A small stipend for travel and accommodations is available. For more information about the convention, click here.

AAJA Seattle/911 Media Arts Student Scholarship: AAJA Seattle has partnered with the 911 Media Arts Center, the state’s premiere non-profit in new media art and documentary film, to help members looking to develop digital media skills. Though this partnership, the chapter will award two scholarships in 2010 to AAJA Seattle student members for up to $400 in costs of a recipient’s classes, computer lab and rental fees at the 911 Media Arts Center in Seattle’s University District.

Click here to download a copy of the application. Deadline for all three scholarships is May 1. For more information contact scholarship chair Owen Lei at olei@king5.com.

AAJA Seattle in 2010

Chapter President’s Report

Dear friends,

Happy holidays! As 2010 draws to a close, our chapter has many accomplishments to celebrate this year. It’s also that time of year to renew your membership and make a tax-deductible donation.

The chapter is blessed with a dedicated core of active members who see the value of this community. Our mission is to inspire the next generation of journalists, promote diversity and support media entrepreneurship. We focused our resources in 2010 on outreach, training and mentoring – and you responded.

Our membership increased from about 80 members in 2009 to more than 100 members in 2010. More students are joining our chapter, as are non-traditional journalists, such as Alex Stonehill, co-founder of the Common Language Project and our keynote speaker at our Lunar New Year Banquet & Silent Auction.

Last year’s Lunar New Year fund-raiser at Tea Palace set a new attendance record, with more than 70 attendees. The chapter board was so pleased with the turnout, we’ve decided to hold our 2011 event there on Jan. 29. Save the date!

One of our key strategies in 2010 was partnering with other organizations to broaden our reach and expand local benefits to members.

The boards of SPJ Western Washington and AAJA Seattle agreed to offer each group’s members reciprocal rates on events to increase attendance and diversity. That gave our AAJA Seattle members access to SPJ’s fall training series and freelancer’s workshop at SPJ member rates.

AAJA Seattle also signed a partnership agreement with 911 Media, a non-profit provider of multimedia training, which provided our members with discounted rates and fellowships for students and professionals. Our first recipient of the fellowship was Carina del Rosario, a freelance photographer, who applied the fellowship toward a class in audio recording.

And our chapter collaborated with other local journalism organizations to broaden our reach and relevance: We provided financial or in-kind support to three regional conferences – Journalism That Matters, SPJ Regional Conference, and the Northwest Video Workshop.

We also provided financial and in-kind support to the newly launched Sea Beez ethnic media consortium, and the William O. Douglas SPJ chapter in co-hosting a “Choppy Waters” workshop for students at Central Washington University.

Finally, we collaborated with the Seattle chapter of the National Association of Asian-American Professionals (NAAAP) on two of their events and promoted the kickoff event of the local chapter of Hacks/Hackers, a journalism innovation group.

Speaking of innovation, our AAJA Seattle chapter held our inaugural Innovation Salon at the Seattle Art Museum in May. The classy event at SAM’s TASTE restaurant offered attendees appetizers, wine and tips on Twitter. We plan to hold another Innovation Salon in 2011. Stay tuned.

Acting on another strategic priority, the chapter this year stepped up its efforts to support the next generation of journalists: We held two student pizza nights (including a multimedia journalism night at the UW), judged student work at the Washington Journalism Education Association state conference and awarded four Northwest Journalists of Color scholarships and two Founders scholarships.

Three of our scholarship winners attended the AAJA National Convention and blogged about their experiences. Read what Peter Sessum, Mary Pauline Diaz and Katelin Chow wrote.

And after returning from a fantastic AAJA National Convention in Los Angeles,  we held an end-of-summer potluck in West Seattle’s Lincoln Park.

We also elected new officers for 2011. Here are your officers for next year:

President: Sanjay Bhatt, reporter, The Seattle Times
VP, Events: Caroline Li, editor, EarthWalkers.com
VP, Programs: Owen Lei, reporter, KING 5
Treasurer: Mai Hoang, reporter, The Yakima Herald-Republic
Secretary: Venice Buhain, editor, Bellevue Patch

As you know, our National Board Representative Athima Chansanchai was elected to AAJA National Secretary to fill the remaining term of Doris Truong, who was elected AAJA National President. The chapter board is discussing its next step to fill Tima’s seat for the remainder of her term.

Speaking of national AAJA affairs, it’s been a challenging year. Fiscal crises threatened AAJA’s future, and all chapters, including ours, gave funds to stabilize the organization.

We can all be proud of our AAJA National President Sharon Chan and AAJA National Treasurer Candace Heckman for steering the national organization through the crisis and making tough decisions. Today AAJA has a strong executive director and is on steadier fiscal ground.

And in what could become an annual tradition, Sharon, Candace and Seattle Times Executive Editor David Boardman, who is also an AAJA Seattle member, organized an all-media Holiday Scoop party at Nectar that benefitted the Northwest Journalists of Color scholarship endowment.

I’d like to thank everyone who helped support the chapter in accomplishing its goals this year. Our event chairs deserve huge kudos: Caroline Li (Lunar New Year Banquet), Nicole Tsong and Mai Hoang (student workshops), Mai Hoang and Venice Buhain (scholarship application and judging), Karen Johnson (innovation salon), and Naomi Ishisaka (scholarships reception).

Our AAJA Seattle community is strong. We can meet any challenge by working together. Our continued success rests on your support, so please renew your membership, bring a colleague to our events and tell us how you’d like to get involved!

If you’re not already, I encourage you to follow us @aajaseattle on Twitter, join our Facebook group and check us out at aajaseattle.org.

I wish you and yours a memorable holiday season and prosperity in the New Year!

In unity,

Sanjay Bhatt
President, AAJA Seattle chapter
Reporter, The Seattle Times

Nov. 1 deadline approaches for 2011 summer internships

Want to work next summer at The Seattle Times or The Boston Globe?

Nov. 1 is the deadline!

The Seattle Times offers paid summer internships in reporting, copy editing, photojournalism, design and multimedia to outstanding students pursuing a career in journalism. For 10 weeks, interns work on varied assignments. They attend weekly training sessions given by members of a Pulitzer-Prize winning staff. Interns receive a skill-development plan and a staff mentor to support them in achieving it.

Qualifications:
Internships are open to sophomores, juniors, seniors or graduate students attending a four-year college or university. Applicants must have a demonstrated commitment to print and online journalism. At least one previous internship at a daily news organization is preferred, and multimedia experience is a plus.

Go to The Seattle Times website for instructions on how to apply.

The Boston Globe gives 10 interns the opportunity to work as reporters, as well as photographer, designer or copy editor.

The 12-week program places reporter-interns in our Metro, Business, Living/Arts, and Sports departments; the photo intern shoots stills and video for all sections, the design intern creates sections fronts and information graphics for print and online, and the copy editing intern works on local, national, foreign and business copy.

The Globe provides guidance and direction, as well as a writing coach dedicated to the interns. Globe interns produce every day and finely polish their journalism skills over the summer.

To apply go to The Boston Globe’s website.

EDIT: In addition, the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund also has a Nov. 1 deadline for its internship program. The program offers internships in copy editing and business reporting. Along with a 10-week paid internship at media outlets around the country, Dow Jones Newspaper Fund participants also receive pre-internship training and a $1,000 scholarship.

The program is open to juniors, seniors and graduate students.

For more information and tips on applying go here.