The Overseas Press Club Foundation
OPC Foundation 2010 Annual Scholarship Luncheon |
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Keynote Speaker: Lionel Barber, Editor, The Financial Times |
| Benefactor Table: $8,000 Patron Table: $5,000 Friend Table: $2,000 |
OPC Members: $75 Non-members: $100 |
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The Overseas Press Club Foundation has a broad mandate to improve the media's understanding of international issues and to raise the quality of news-gathering efforts in covering the world. The most tangible expression of this charter is a scholarship/internship program for undergraduate and graduate students in American colleges and universities, who aspire to become foreign correspondents.
Graduate and undergraduate students, studying at American colleges and universities are invited to apply for one of twelve $2,000 scholarships to be awarded by the Overseas Press Club Foundation.
Winning an OPC Foundation scholarship is more than a cash award. Winners are invited to join the Overseas Press Club family. They are encouraged to network and keep the organization informed of their career moves. From among the scholarship winners, the Foundation also selects up to six scholars and pays travel and living expenses for them to intern at foreign bureaus at such leading news organization as the Associated Press and Reuters and foreign English-language media like Cambodia Daily and the South China Morning Post. In many cases, winning a prestigious OPC Foundation award has helped launch careers.
The judges require that applicants submit a Cover Letter, Resume and Essay. The applicant’s name and school should appear at the top of each page. The Essay of approximately 500 words should concentrate on an area of the world or an international issue that is in keeping with the applicant's interest. It can be in the form of a story, news analysis or essay. Recent winners have written on such diverse topics as playing black jack on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, political activism in Morocco, and social upheaval in China. Applicants are also encouraged to submit essays showing a strong understanding of, or interest in, global economic issues such as trade, finance, emerging markets, immigration or environmental impacts.
The Cover Letter should be autobiographical in nature addressing such questions as how the applicant developed an interest in this particular part of the world, or how he or she would use the scholarship to further journalistic ambitions. The judges respond well to applications showing strong reporting skills, color, and understanding or passion.
Winners will be contacted in December so that arrangements can be made for them to attend the Foundation Scholarship Luncheon in February 2010 in New York City at the Foundation's expense. Recipients are expected to attend. Applicants do not have to be US citizens.
DEADLINE for this year's application has passed
Congratulations to the 2010 winners of the OPC Foundation Scholarships. About 200 applications from more than 60 different colleges were received in the most competitive year the Foundation has seen since its inception. The awards were presented at the annual Scholarship Luncheon on February 19, 2010.
Jennifer Brookland, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Leah Finnegan, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Francesca Freeman, Stanford University Graduate School of Journalism
Jenny Gross, Northwestern University
Artis Henderson, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Karina Ioffee, City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism
Owen Kibenge, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Denise Law, Ryerson University
James Matthews, New York University Graduate School of Journalism
Jeff Roberts, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Caroline Stauffer, Columbia University SIPA
Chris Stein, University of California - Santa Barbara
