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.

“Writing for Multimedia” is scheduled for May 7 at the Ohio University Pickerington Center. The session’s instructor, Rosalie Stemer, has reported and edited at the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Daily News and Kansas City Times.

Stemer will discuss writing clean, sharp stories with great leads, writing for print and online audiences, skeptical reporting and editing to avoid errors and how to quickly check numbers and charts for accuracy.

Also available to ONA members is a session on video techniques for Web sites scheduled for May 16 at Ohio University, Athens.

The special hands-on session will be taught by Bob Stewart, associate director of OU’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and a specialist in video journalism.

During the session, attendees will shoot and edit their own video. More details on the video session will be mailed to members next week.

Other available training sessions are:

• April 15 - Adobe Photoshop - Columbus State Community College
• April 16 - Adobe InDesign - Columbus State Community College
• April 16 - Grow Your Web Site - Columbus State Community College
• April 30 - Circulation Management - Ohio University Pickrington Center

More information on each session can be found by clicking here.

A hundred of our members and their families and friends will help us celebrate our 75th anniversary at the May 18 Reds-Indians game in Cincinnati. Another one hundred will be on hand for the June 29 game in Cleveland.

The training session features Peter Conti Jr., senior vice president, and Bill Caudill, director of Internet sales, for Borrell Associates, a research and consulting firm that tracks local advertising and helps online companies develop executive strategies.

Topics include trends and outlook for local online media audience usage and ad spending, benchmarking your Web site, sites to emulate, elements for design, content that generates sales and sales that generate profits.

During the session instructors will select three sites run by participants and critique them using the basic principals of good design, content and usability.

The session is limited to 40, so be sure to get your registration in early.

Other available training sessions are:

* March 19 - Basic Ad Sales - Ohio University Pickerington Center
* March 26 - Multimedia Ad Sales - Ohio University Pickerington Center
* April 15 - Adobe Photoshop - Columbus State Community College
* April 16 - Adobe InDesign - Columbus State Community College

More information on each session can be found by selecting “Training Calendar” under the “Services” link of Ohionews.org.

Elected as vice president of ONA and president of The Ohio Newspapers Foundation was Richard (Dick) Morris, vice president & general manager of the Bowling Green Sentinel Tribune. David Dix, publisher of the Kent/Ravenna Record Courier, was elected treasurer. All are two-year terms ending in February 2010. Frank Deaner continues as executive director and secretary to the board.

At the ONA Annual Meeting held Feb. 15, Dan Behrens, publisher of the Marysville Journal Tribune, and Kim Ross-Polito, editor & publisher of the Crestline Advocate, were elected to ONA’s board of trustees. Behrens will serve a three-year term representing daily newspapers under 20,000 circulation. He succeeds Tom Smith, publisher of the Bellevue Gazette, who has retired from the board.

Ross-Polito will serve a three-year term representing weekly newspapers. She succeeds Murray Cohen, president of Delphos Herald, Inc., who has also retired from the board.

Re-elected to the board for three-year terms ending in February 2011 were Del Varney, vice president of operations for the Columbus Dispatch, and Joe Zerbey, vice president & general manager, The Blade (Toledo), representing daily newspapers over 100,000 circulation; Doug Phares, publisher of the Sandusky Register, representing daily newspapers of 20,000 to 100,000 circulation; and Cheryl Vespoint, publisher of the Barberton Herald, representing weekly newspapers.

Douthit further announced that the Foundation has already added three new university journalism scholarships for 2008. Those scholarships of $1,500 each will be awarded this spring. Applications for all of the Foundation’s scholarships are currently being accepted, with a deadline of March 31.

We gratefully acknowledge these contributors who have made five-year pledges to the Foundation’s capital campaign:

Dispatch Printing Company
The (Toledo) Blade
Akron Beacon Journal
Record Publishing Co.
Gazette Publishing Co.
Lake County News Herald
Mount Vernon News
Cambridge Jeffersonian
Dix Communications
(Carrollton) Free Press Standard
Fremont News-Messenger
Sandusky Register
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer
Delphos Herald, Inc.
Baker & Hostetler LLP
Frost Brown Todd LLC
Bowling Green Sentinel Tribune
Findlay Courier
Elyria Chronicle-Telegram
Wapakoneta Daily News
Defiance Publishing Co.
Norwalk Reflector
Shelby Daily Globe
Archbold Buckeye
Cox Ohio Publishing
Newark Advocate
Douthit Communications, Inc.
Gazette Printing Co.
Cincinnati Enquirer
Welch Publishing
Wooster Daily Record
Medina County Gazette
Sugarcreek Budget
Chillicothe Gazette
Gazette Newspapers

This is the third version of the ONA logo since the association’s founding in 1933. The last redesign was done in conjunction with the 50th anniversary.

“This new design is contemporary and fits nicely with the logo for AdOhio, our subsidiary,” said Frank Deaner, ONA executive director. “The rollout of the AdOhio logo last summer was very well-received and we are enthused about this coordinated move to updated graphics.”

ONA has reserved a block of 100 seats for the Sunday, May 18, Reds-Indians game at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati and another block of 100 seats for the Sunday, June 29, Reds-Indians game at Progressive Field in Cleveland. At both locations, ONA members will have access to a picnic area with the food included in the price of the game ticket.

Valued at more than $50 in each location, these tickets will be sold to ONA members for $25 each. There is a limit of no more than four tickets per member, first-come first-served.

Watch for complete details to be announced in a broadcast e-mail the week of February 25. In the meantime, inquiries may be directed to ONA executive director Frank Deaner.

Chuck Nau, a publishing consultant with Murry and Nau Inc., will instruct ‘Basic Advertising Sales,’ scheduled for March 19 at the Ohio University Pickerington Center.

The program, which is intended for advertising managers, directors, sales representatives and support staff, will reinforce newspaper product and sales knowledge.

Also at the Ohio University Pickerington Center, Mike Blinder, president of the Blinder Group Inc. consulting firm, will lead ‘Multimedia Advertising Sales’ on March 26.

Blinder will cover Web readership, ad performance and pricing as well as feature over 25 successful local online sales programs from markets of various sizes within North America.

Blinder will also cover local “search” marketing, blending print and Web, ads that work and making the sale.

Details are being completed for a Photoshop session on April 15 and an InDesign on April 16. Both sessions are scheduled at Columbus State Community College in Columbus.

The ad sales training sessions have limited seating so be sure to register as soon as possible. For more information visit www.ohionews.org/training.html.

Contact Sue Bazzoli, administrative services manager, with questions at sbazzoli@ohionews.org or (614) 486-6677.