Philip Merrill College of Journalism | University of Maryland

Scripps Howard Awards go to Two Maryland Journalism Students

For Immediate Release July 1, 2000

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Two University of Maryland journalism students were among 10 selected nationwide by the Scripps Howard Foundation for its highly competitive Top Ten Scholarship program.

Chris Frates and Lacy Papai each will receive a $10,000 scholarship this fall.

"The foundation's Top Ten Scholarship program was created to identify and reward the brightest college journalism students in the country, and the 10 outstanding scholars selected this year certainly fit that bill," said Judith G. Clabes, president and chief executive officer of the foundation.

Frates is entering his junior year at the College of Journalism. The New Jersey native is a summer intern reporter at The Tampa Tribune. He has also served as a Statehouse reporter for Capital News Service, news editor of the campus daily and intern reporter for the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association, Today's Sunbeam and the Gloucester County (N.J.) Times.

Frates also won a national William Randolph Hearst Foundation award for his coverage of a campus meningitis outbreak in the Diamondback, plus several regional Society of Professional Journalists awards.

Papai transferred to Maryland this summer from Ohio University, where she worked for the campus daily. She worked as a Washington correspondent for the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire in Washington in the spring semester and is interning this summer at the American Journalism Review.

Papai, an Ohio native who is entering her senior year, will enroll in the Capital News Service program in the fall.

The Top Ten winners were selected from 44 nominees nationwide, based on academic achievement and a demonstrated interest in a career in journalism. A committee made up of industry professionals and foundation trustees selected the winners.

Contact: Christopher Callahan, Associate Dean, College of Journalism.