It will distribute up to $50,000 per year in grants of up to $5,000 each to minority students enrolled at an accredited four-year college and who have a demonstrated financial need.
Sinclair Starts Diversity Scholarship Fund
Sinclair Broadcast Group has established a $500,000 scholarship fund to help minority students finance their undergraduate studies related to broadcasting or journalism.
“This fund complements our existing widespread internship program,” said Don Thompson, Sinclair SVP of human resources. “We have long-standing relationships with numerous colleges, including historically black colleges and universities in markets where we have stations. These relationships are a great source f or talent, and many student interns become full-time employees. This scholarship fund is another w ay for us to invest in the future of broadcast television, by ensuring that students dedicated to careers in broadcasting can complete their educations.”
Sinclair’s goal is to distribute up to $50,000 per year in grants of up to $5,000 each. The fund is open to minority students enrolled at an accredited four-year college and who have a demonstrated financial need. Additional qualifications will be set forth in the scholarship application, which will be available this spring on the Sinclair website (www.sbgi.net). The first grants will be awarded by the summer of 2016, applicable toward fall 2016 tuition.
“We believe that television broadcast news is the m ost important source for local political, consumer protection, and other investigative report ing that our communities want and need,” said Scott Livingston, Sinclair’s VP of news. “This scholarship fund supports students who believe in that mission too.”
While the fund is set up solely to provide financial scholarships, awardees will be invited to produce stories for television broadcast and web publication.
Sinclair said that as it ramps up Circa, its new digital news service targeting the next generation, and expands its American Sports Network, which carries numerous college conference games in a variety of sports and related programming, “college campuses will become important content sources in cultivating tomorrow’s broadcasters.”
BRAND CONNECTIONS
“Campuses are where many top journalists begin their careers,” said Livingston. “The Sinclair Broadcast Diversity Scholarship Fund is an opportunity to deepen our commitment to students who want to pursue careers in broadcast journalism, but who don’t have the financial means to complete their degrees.”
Comments (1)
Robert Vincent says:
February 3, 2016 at 3:09 pm
Reminds me of a situation at J-school several years ago. I was a senior and we were doing the usual campus news program. You know the speil, a small studio, some student reports out with cameras, a newsroom, an assignment desk and all that stuff. It was a usual campus operation with mostly girls as producers, and about a 40/60 split of men/women reporters and a 70/30 split of men/women photogs. In the studio, it was wide open for women in any position such as D, TD, audio, cameras, etc. So, this nice looking Black girl comes in on a tour of our program. Typical visit with her asking questions about duties and jobs. She sits in on our 4pm news which ran to a cable-only audience of about 50k. Locals liked it as we concentrated on their town. So the show is done and the professor asks, “Well, have we convinced you to attend here?” She replies, “Well, I’m a bit concerned about getting a job when I graduate.” So the professor replies, “You are Black, female, nice looking, and intelligent acting. I can get you a job now at a station if you want. But when you do graduate, your biggest problem is deciding whom to disappoint with a turn down. Your demographic in news is top right now.”