NAHJ is pleased to announce this year’s scholarship recipients. They represent colleges and universities from across the country.
A very special thank you to NAHJ founding member, Maria Elena Salinas for her continued support and for providing scholarships to students.
This year, scholarships were given in three categories:
Ruben Salazar/NAHJ General Scholarships Fund: Named after the Mexican-American journalist who was the news director for the Spanish-language television station KMEX and a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. These scholarships are awarded to college-bound high school seniors, college undergraduates and graduate students pursuing careers in English or Spanish-language print, photo, broadcast or online journalism.
NAHJ Maria Elena Salinas Scholarships: Established in 2002, this program awards scholarships to students who demonstrate a strong desire to pursue a career as a Spanish-language broadcast journalist. This program is made possible through a donation from Univision network news anchor, and NAHJ founding member, Maria Elena Salinas. This scholarship is awarded to college undergraduate and graduate students.
NAHJ Rick Ramirez Scholarship: Named after a former mentor of the NAHJ student projects, and close friend of current NAHJ President Mekahlo Medina who is funding the scholarship. Rick Ramirez was a photojournalist at ABC15 in Phoenix. He lost his battle with cancer in 2015 at age 40. The scholarship is awarded to a student demonstrating a passion for photojournalism, fairness and journalism excellence.
The students are listed under the scholarship they received.
Ruben Salazar Scholarship:
Nuran Alteir, Coastline Community College
Mercedes Barba, New York University
Cora Cervantes Sandoval, Columbia University
Brandon Gomez, New York University
Elena Gomez, San Diego State University
Heidi Harrington-Johnson, New York University
Daniel Litwin, University of Missouri, Columbia
Kristen Luna, Pasadena City College
Marcos Martinez Chacon, University of California, Berkeley
Valeria Masssarelli, Georgetown University
Zeemena Mejia, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Erendira Morales, Central Wyoming College
Anna Muckerman, University of Maryland, College Park
Lauren Lopez Negrete, Arizona State University
Rita Oceguera, Northwestern University
Amanda Ortiz, Universidad del Sagrado Corazon
Bianca Portillo-Maldonado, The Pennsylvania State University
Tomas Rodriguez, Los Angeles City College
Araceli Roman, Texas A&M University
Jose Romero, California State University, Northridge
Rochelle Romero, Arizona State University
Wyatt Salsbury, New York University
Maylan Studart, New York Institute of Technology
Francisco Vara-Orta, University of Missouri, Columbia
James Villalobos, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Rick Ramirez Scholarship:
Karla Estrada, University of North Texas
Maria Elena Salinas Scholarship:
Claudia Buccio, University of Southern California
Mariela Patron, University of California, Berkeley
Gil Rivera Torres, Universidad de Puerto Rico en Arecibo