Fil-Am Press Club NY offers journalism scholarships to high school students

FAPCNY members hosting a talk and book launch for investigative journalist Raissa Robles. CONTRIBUTED

 NEW YORK — On its sixth year, the Fil-Am Press Club of New York announced the launch of a Journalism Scholarship program for high school students across the New York metropolitan area.

At least 150 guests, including diplomatic dignitaries, musical artists, and members of the Fil-Am community, were in attendance at the Philippine Center on Fifth Avenue, where the scholarship program was announced November 3, as the club celebrated its anniversary with the theme “Celebrating the People Who Report the News.”

Applications for students with an interest in pursuing a career in journalism, digital media, or media studies are now open. (For further inquiries and for application forms, email [email protected]. Deadline for applications is March 16, 2018. Scholarship recipients will be announced at a ceremony on May 3, 2018, to coincide with World Press Freedom Day.)

“We launched the Scholarship Program to assist and encourage outstanding Fil-Am high school students to pursue a journalism career and prepare them to become qualified, experienced candidates who value the ethical standards of professional journalism, ready to be hired in newsrooms,” said FAPCNY President Ricky Rillera of Philippine Daily Mirror.

Cristina DC Pastor of The FilAm magazine, the chair of the Scholarship Committee, announced that the search is open to high school students enrolled in any school in the Tri-state at the time of application. They are members of the school paper as reporters, columnists, editors, or photographers. Or they have a blog that is interesting and with “significant and meaningful content.”

“A regular food blog or fashion blog is not enough,” she said. “It has to have a message and with a story to tell.” The news site should be live at least a year.

The applicants will be interviewed, submit a personal essay or a video pitch on why they should be awarded the scholarship.

Other members of the Scholarship Committee are freelance writer Lumen Castaneda, Percival Cunanan of Eagle Broadcasting Corp., and Monette Rivera of The Filipino Channel.

This is only the beginning, said Rillera.

“As we expand our program, we intend to pursue additional funding, so we can add more components to the program into other areas of journalism, for example, in broadcast, investigative reporting and photography,” he said. “That support will range from financial aid to professional work experience to matching them with mentors. In addition, we also intend to collaborate with news organizations for potential internships and academic institutions as part of our program.”

Former Consul General in New York Mario de Leon Jr. said he was “elated” that the FAPCNY is launching the Journalism Scholarship program for young Fil-Ams.

“You have started repurposing your organization to the future with a program that will help sustain a breed of writers, photographers and multimedia practitioners that will become professional journalists whose only quest is to relentlessly find the truth,” he said during the launch ceremony. “Tough words indeed, but we should ‘aim high’ to achieve our mission.”