The American Copy Editors Society Education awarded five students with 2010-11 scholarships: Nora Simon, University of Oregon; Georgia Adams Langerfeld, University of West Florida; Joshua Barone, University of Missouri; Justin Schneewind, Houston Baptist University; and Rhett Umphress, Ball State University.
As the top candidate among the applicants, Simon was named the Aubespin scholar and was given $2,500. Other winners each received $1,000.
In addition, winners received free registration to the American Copy Editors Society’s 2011 National Conference in Phoenix. The ACES Education Fund also provided $400 for conference travel expenses.
ACES has now awarded 54 scholarships since 1999.
The winners were selected from 29 applicants by five judges: Beryl Adcock of McClatchy Newspapers in Washington; Lourdes Fernandez Venard of Newsday; Doug Kouma of Meredith Special Interest Publications in Des Moines; Jack Mulkey of the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif.; and Vince Tuss of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Applicants were judged on their commitment to copy editing as a career, experience and abilities, as demonstrated by the examples in the application and the recommendations.
The judges described this year’s field as “incredibly strong.”
“Our winners all clearly show a passion for this business, but they aren’t jumping into it with unrealistic expectations,” one judge said. “They seem to understand the new challenges facing newspapers, and journalism in general, and they share a common drive for meeting those head-on. Many spoke specifically about being an advocate for readers and helping to build their trust, and that’s never been more important.”
