Foundation chooses students for 2008 scholarships
The Ohio Newspapers Foundation has named the winners of seven scholarships for the 2008-2009 school year.
Leslie Cusano of Kent State University, Emily Mullin of Ohio University and Cassidy Pazyniak of Miami (Ohio) University will each receive a University Journalism Scholarship.
Amanda Dolasinski of The Ohio State University will receive the Ohio Newspaper Women’s Scholarship and Lauren Farnsworth of Bowling Green State University will be awarded the Harold K. Douthit Regional Scholarship.
The five scholarships are awarded to undergraduate students in Ohio studying journalism.
Two Minority Scholarships, awarded to high school seniors who plan to pursue a career in journalism, will be given to Wesley Lowery of Shaker Heights High School and Taylor Mirfendereski of Olentangy Liberty High School in Powell.
All seven of the scholarships are $1,500.
Cusano, who is originally from Boardman, covers the school of art as a reporter and photographer for the Daily Kent Stater and is managing editor of Luna Negra, an art and literature publication. She has been a photographer for Artemis, The Burr and Fusion, which are also school publications. Cusano has worked at 89.7 WKSU-FM, Kent Stat’s public radio station, for more than three years as a marketing and public relations intern and photographer.
She is a photojournalism major and expects to graduate in December of 2009.
At OU, Mullin is a campus reporter for The Athens News, the area’s local newspaper. She also co-hosts a weekly political talk show on the school’s radio station, ACRN. Previously, the Latrobe, Penn., native has worked at a local public access station, The Government Channel, producing short, daily news segments to air on TV.
Mullin’s career goal is to be a political or investigative reporter at a large newspaper. The journalism major expects to graduate in June of 2010.
Pazyniak is a staff writer for Miami’s student newspaper The Miami Student and has also written for The Miami Quarterly. The Chesterland native is one of two Miami representatives for bystudents.com, a Web site which collects students’ opinions about their university for a guidebook.
Pazyniak is majoring in journalism and psychology and minoring in marketing. She expects to graduate in May of 2010.
The winner of this year’s Women’s Scholarship, Dolasinski, is originally from Youngstown. She has been the managing editor of The Lantern, the student-run newspaper at OSU as well as an editor of the metro section and arts and life. She currently is a columnist for Elle Magazine’s Web site and a college blogger for AOL News.
Dolasinski has interned for The Alliance Review and Salem News. In June, she will begin a three-month internship with The Columbus Dispatch. The journalism major plans to graduate in 2009.
Farnsworth, who is originally from Toledo and winner of the Douthit Regional Scholarship, currently works for BGSU’s School of Marketing and Communications and freelances for The Toledo Free Press. She has served as copy editor for the school’s student newspaper The BG News and has written for The Monitor, a school marketing publication.
This summer, Farnsworth will intern with the photography department at the marketing and communications school as well as The Bluffton News. She hopes to complete her journalism degree in May of 2009 and complete a master’s after receiving some real-world experience.
Lowery and Mirfendereski, both seniors at Shaker Heights and Olentangy Liberty high schools respectively, were such strong applicants for this year’s Minority Scholarship,the judges decided to award a scholarship to each of them.. Normally, the scholarship is presented to one student.
Lowery has been editor-in-chief of his high-school newspaper The Shakerite for two years. Previously, he was opinion editor. He participated in Kent State Press Day in 2005 and attended a Cleveland State University sportswriting seminar. Lowery aspires to double major in journalism and human relations at Ohio University.
Mirfendereski has been a writer and photographer for Olentangy Liberty’s The Cannon as well as a team leader, editor and reporter for OLHS News, the school’s broadcast production. As a sophomore she rotated staff positions at The Patriot Press, a publication for the Olentangy Valley News.
Last summer she attended the Summer Media Workshop at the University of Missouri, the High School Journalism Institute at Indiana University and J Camp for the Asian American Journalist Association. Mirfendereski will attend OU this fall and plans to major in journalism.
