Six area college students were selected for scholarships in memory of longtime Akron Beacon Journal editor John S. Knight and public relations professional Ludel Sauvageot. A seventh student has received a scholarship from the Akron Press Club.
This year Kent State students from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication earned four of the seven coveted $3,000 scholarships.
The Knight scholarships are awarded by the John S. Knight Memorial Journalism Fund, and the Sauvageot scholarship and Press Club award are presented by the Akron Press Club.
About the winners
Even in scholarship circles, it's not every day you come across a 4.0 grade point average from a college junior. That's what Kathryn Coduto has been able to maintain even as she worked as an engineer, producer, executive producer and marketing director at TV2, Kent State's student-run television station. She also wrote, copy edited and blogged for Kent State's Fusion magazine. Coduto has her eye on working in public relations in the music industry. In her scholarship application, Coduto wrote that she is "proud of what I was able to accomplish by keeping myself organized and focused." That focus will come in handy when Kathryn starts to work on her master's degree this summer while finishing up her undergraduate degree in electronics media management.
Lydia Coutre does it all, as the news editor of the Grand Haven Tribune will attest. During the internship at her hometown paper last summer, she wrote stories, took photographs, shot videos and produced them. Coutre is a newspaper journalism major at Kent State and has worked in student media since her first week on campus. She's been a reporter, assigning editor and designer for the Daily Kent Stater newspaper, and she's written for Kent State's The Burr magazine. All this and this junior still carries a 3.9 grade point average. Coutre will intern this summer at the Columbus Dispatch after spending the spring semester in Italy. The next step in Coutre's plan is to work in U.S. newspapers or abroad as a freelance journalist.
The list of multimedia skills on Emily Inverso's resume is matched only by the list of professional and student media experience there. She knows html, InDesign, FinalCut Pro and Audacity, to name a few. She's served as the managing editor of Kent State's A magazine, as news anchor for Black Squirrel Radio, Web editor for Kent State'sThe Burr magazine, and as a reporter and assigning editor for the Daily Kent Stater. Among highlights of Inverso's young career are an in-depth look at then-student Terry Norman and the findings surrounding the infamy of May 4, 1970, at Kent State. The news journalism major spent last summer in the Big Apple as a Web production intern for Details magazine, but that just wasn't enough for the junior with a 3.95 grade point average. While in New York, she was able to take on positions at two other companies.
Goals upon graduation for Kent State's Daniel Moore? "I would like to be hired by an organization that exposes underreported, global issues," wrote Moore, a junior newspaper journalism major. Judges believed that he is well on his way after reading comprehensive stories on the Kent State budget cuts and the continuation of remedial math courses in the face of state opposition. He's a reporter for the News Outlet, a collaborative of three Ohio public universities and professional media partners. He's reported for both the Daily Kent Stater and The Burrmagazine. He's been an assigning editor for the newspaper and blogger for the magazine. And, of course, he's a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors. Moore, a junior with a 3.92 grade point average, also wrote that "it is so vital in our world today that we have at least one more person operating for the greater good."
Christine Morgan's internship at the world headquarters of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has been a highlight in her burgeoning career in public relations. The Kent State junior has been at Goodyear for nearly an entire year. The editor of online communications for Goodyear touts Morgan's writing, editing and leadership skills as the qualities that have made a success of the launch and branding of the company's new health and wellness organization. Morgan has a 3.78 grade point average and has worked in several key positions at Kent State's chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America, including national conference chairperson and intercampus liaison. When Morgan's not working with PRSSA, she can be found volunteering for Kent State's Campus Kitchen Project, a program that recovers food from events and cafeterias and prepares hot meals for the needy.
Media Contact: Jennifer Kramer, APR, jlkramer@kent.edu, 330-672-1960