Communication Scholarships

Rebecca F. Gross Scholarship for the Outstanding Communication senior

A $250 honorarium is awarded to the outstanding journalism and mass communication student. The Rebecca Gross Award for the outstanding journalism and mass communication student is based on three criteria: grade point average, service to the student media, and other campus activities. Students must be seniors to be eligible for the award. The grade point average must reach a minimum of 3.00. Service in other campus activities includes both volunteer and paid work related to some form of journalism. Rebecca F. Gross is one of Pennsylvania's most distinguished journalists and public servants. Miss Gross was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1928 and was appointed managing editor of the Lock Haven Express in 1931. She was one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Women's Press Association in 1937, later serving as its president and as president of the Pennsylvania Society of Newspaper Editors and the Pennsylvania Associated Press. During World War II, she served in the U.S. Navy and holds the rank of commander (retired). In 1948 Miss Gross was appointed a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, one of the first four women to receive such an appointment. Miss Gross served two terms as a member of the Board [now Council] of Trustees of this institution and in 1969 was named to the Board of State Colleges and Universities Directors. She was appointed a member of the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. This annual journalism award and scholarship established in 1982 expresses in a small way the gratitude of the University and the journalism and mass communication discipline.

Three Professor Saundra K. Hybels, Ph.D., memorial scholarships

An approximately one-half of full-tuition scholarship is awarded to three Journalism and Mass Communication majors each year. One is given to a sophomore, one to a junior, and one to a senior. The awards are based on grade point average and documented commitment to the journalism profession. Preference is given to students graduating from a high school in Clinton County, Pennsylvania. In 1977, Dr. Saundra Kay Hybels won approval for a Journalism major at Lock Haven University. After she died at the beginning of the 1999 fall semester, her husband, Joansin Sepety, established these three scholarships in her name. A scholar par excellence, Dr. Hybels wrote two books, one of which, Communicating Effectively, was a best-seller in its area and is now in its sixth edition. The elevated level of Professor Hybel's scholarly activity was reflected in her teaching. For example, her Fulbright Fellowship in the Federated States of Micronesia and her exchange semester in Poland resulted not only in a newspaper article published by the Christian Science Monitor, but also in an LHU Liberal Arts Seminar on travel literature. She earned a B.A. from Western Michigan University in 1961, an M.A.C. from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania in 1962, and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1971.

Three Professor Saundra K. Hybels, Ph.D., memorial scholarships

Margaret Ann Brown Memorial Scholarship for a J & MC Junior

A $250 tuition waiver is awarded to the junior Communication major with the highest grade point average above 3.500.

Other Communication Scholarships

LHU Foundation: The Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania Foundation offers many other scholarships that J & MC students can apply for. Among them are the presidential scholarships that offer a full tuition waiver. Off-Campus Sources: LHU journalism and mass communication students also have been successful in obtaining scholarships from other sources. Among these outside sources are the following. Address or telephone numbers are not listed for some of these sources because they change yearly. Usually this department receives each year a letter from a different person announcing the scholarship. This letter is copied and posted in the hall outside the J & MC offices on the sixth floor of the Robinson Learning Center. Association for Women in Sports Media gives a scholarship for women who plan to pursue a career in sports writing, sport copy editing, sports broadcasting or sports public relations. AWSM Scholarship, P.O. Box 4205, Mililani, HI 96789. Pennsylvania Women's Press Association offers a $750 scholarship to a print journalism major in a four-year program in a Pennsylvania college or university. College and University Public Relations Association of Pennsylvania offers a $1,500 communication internship award to a student of color. Write to CUPRAP, 800 North Third Street, Harrisburg, PA, 17102 or call (717) 232-8639 Leonard M. Perryman Communications Scholarship ($2,500) for Ethnic Minority Students for undergraduate study in religious journalism or mass communication. Write to Scholarship Committee, United Methodist Communications, Public Media Division, P.O. Box 320, Nashville, TN 37202-0320. NCAA and The Freedom Forum offer eight $3,000 scholarships for sports-journalism students. Write to NCAA, 6201 College Boulevard, Overland Park, Kansas 66211-2422; telephone (913) 339-0036 The New Jersey Press Foundation offer 10-week paid summer internships (up to $275 a week) plus grants of up to $3,000 at NJPF newspapers. Students must be New Jersey residents, but they can be enrolled in a Pennsylvania JMC program (ours qualifies). Write to the New Jersey Press Association, 206 West State Street, Trenton, NJ 08608-1095 or telephone (609) 695-3366.