Apply for SPJ/LA’s 2021 Scholarships

UPDATE: The deadline to apply has been extended to June 1, 2021.

The Society of Professional Journalists Los Angeles (SPJ/LA) is now accepting applications from students for its 2021 Scholarship Awards for aspiring journalists in Southern California.

SPJ/LA offers six separate scholarships totaling $9,500 to students seeking to enter news, sports or photojournalism media careers and are from or attending universities or colleges in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties.

As part of this year's scholarships, SPJ/LA has changed the mission of the Richard D. Hendrickson Memorial Scholarship so that it focuses on students of color and encourages newsroom diversity. The Hendrickson scholarship will be awarded to college students who self-identify as Black; Hispanic, Latino or Latinx; Native American/Indigenous; Asian/Pacific Islander or Middle Eastern and are pursuing careers in the field of print and/or online text journalism.

The $2,000 scholarship is named after the late SPJ/LA board member Richard Hendrickson, a longtime journalism instructor who advocated for his students as they applied for scholarships themselves and worked to enter the profession.

"I know Dick would be so pleased to see these changes to his scholarship, offering opportunities to students from underrepresented communities and helping to foster greater diversity in newsrooms," said Carol Hendrickson, widow of Richard Hendrickson. "Thank you to SPJ/LA for adopting these changes."

The other scholarships that will be awarded this year are:

• Lisa A. Davidson Memorial Scholarship – aspiring journalist ($1,500)

• Ken Inouye Scholarship – media diversity ($1,500)

• Helen Johnson Scholarship – broadcast journalism ($1,500)

• Carl Greenberg Scholarship – investigative or political reporting ($1,500)

• Bill Farr Scholarship – aspiring journalist ($1,500)
  

The deadline to apply is May 1, 2021. UPDATE: The deadline has been extended to June 1, 2021.

Download the application form here.

More information about the scholarships is available here.

Please email applications and questions to:
Richard Saxton, Scholarship Committee Chair SPJLAScholarships2021@gmail.com