MNSPJ accepts unrestricted $2,000 and $500 college scholarship applications through May 5

Attention college journalists: The Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists (MNSPJ) is now accepting applications for its 2024 student scholarship. This year, MNSPJ will award one $2,000 scholarship to a student pursuing a career in broadcast, print, online or visual journalism. An additional scholarship of $500 may be awarded, depending upon the number and quality of applications.

These are unrestricted funds and can be used as students see fit toward academic or professional pursuits.

Last year’s first-place scholarship was awarded to Caleb Hensin, an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, whose work for the Minnesota Daily had drawn him off-campus to pen stories surrounding the debate over rent control in Minneapolis, a proposed Africa Village development in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, and interviews with elected officials.

To participate in the 2024 scholarship competition:

Applicants must either be enrolled in a post-secondary institution in Minnesota or have graduated from a high school in Minnesota and be enrolled in college elsewhere.

Click here to submit an application form –- the first step.

Email the additional application materials to minnesota.spj@gmail.com.

Here’s what’s required:

  1. Application form, which can be found here
  2. Resume
  3. College transcript (unofficial transcript is fine)
  4. Letter of recommendation
  5. Short answer (limited to 250 words): Why have you chosen journalism as a career?
  6. Up to six samples of work via a link to your portfolio, a PDF of clips or story URLs.

Applications must be received by 10 p.m. on May 5, 2024. No late submissions will be accepted. The scholarship winners will be announced at or prior to MNSPJ’s annual Page One Awards banquet this summer, where recipients will receive their awards. Questions? Email fmelo (at) pioneerpress.com.