JMC students won five of seven Akron Press Club scholarships this year. Four JMC students have been selected for scholarships in memory of longtime Akron Beacon Journal Editor John S. Knight and public relations professional Ludel Sauvageot; a fifth has been selected for a $3,000 Akron Press Club scholarship. This year’s Knight scholars are Kathryn Coduto, Lydia Coutré and Tyler Pina of Kent State and each receives a $3,000 scholarship. The Sauvageot scholar, who also receives $3,000, is Kirsten Bowers of Kent State, and Carrie Blazina of Kent State has been selected by the Press Club for a $3,000 scholarship.
About the winners:
Carrie Blazina is a third-year news major concentrating in newspaper journalism. Through four semesters of Kent State student media involvement, she has worked as a copy editor, academics reporter and administration reporter for the Daily Kent Stater and as a copy editor and copy desk chief for The Burr magazine. She interned last summer at the Columbus Dispatch as a copy editor, and she will be holding the same position this summer at the Denver Post as a part of the Dow Jones News Fund internship program. She is currently studying abroad for the semester in Kent State's Florence program. After her graduation in May 2014, she intends to work for a publication as a copy editor.
After graduating with a 4.0 grade point average from North Baltimore High School, Kirsten Bowers attended community college at Owens Community College in Findlay, Ohio. In high school, Bowers participated in student council, volleyball and basketball. In the fall of 2011, Bowers transferred to Â鶹´«Ã½ where she was able to discover her love for public relations. Since being at Kent State, Bowers has become co-vice president of fundraising for Kent State’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). She is also involved with the TV2 marketing team and is a paid enterprise reporter for the student newspaper, the Daily Kent Stater.
Even in scholarship circles, it's not every day you come across a 4.0 grade point average from a college senior. Writing press releases, tracking artist mentions, and conducting conference calls last summer at Warner Bros. Records in New York City seemed like a breeze for Kathryn Coduto, after serving as an engineer, producer, executive producer, programming director, executive news producer and marketing director at TV2, Kent State's student-run television station. She helped in the creation of three different shows in that time: Friday Football Frenzy (Fall 2012), TV2 This Morning (Spring 2013 - also co-producer), and KSUniverse (Spring 2013 - producer). She also wrote, copy edited and blogged for Kent State's Fusion magazine and has started working as a classified advertising sales representative in the Office of Student Media.
Lydia Coutré is a senior newspaper journalism student at Â鶹´«Ã½ with a 3.91 grade point average. She is the managing editor for the Daily Kent Stater, where she has been working since her freshman year in various roles. Coutré will finish her college career as editor in chief of the Stater before graduating in December 2013. She recently returned from a two-week trip to Brazil, where she and other student journalists reported on various issues in the country. Previously, she worked as a multimedia intern at the Grand Haven Tribune and as a metro reporting intern and public affairs fellow at The Columbus Dispatch. This summer, she will be a reporting intern for The Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Minn. Coutré hopes to travel and write abroad upon graduation and eventually report for a daily metro newspaper in the United States.
Tyler Pina serves Kent State. As a senator for the College of Communication and Information and director of communications for Undergraduate Student Government, Pina has established programs to assist college and university students. He is directing the third feature-length film created by Kent State Independent Films called Hell at Heathridge and has served as marketing director for the group. He’s active in TV2 and Black Squirrel Radio, and he has served as director of recruitment, vice president of philanthropy, programming director, public relations chairman, website coordinator and social chairman for the Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity. He has accomplished all of this while maintaining a 3.7 grade point average as an electronic media production major in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.