Scholarships
Thanks to the generosity of alumni and friends, thousands of dollars in scholarship money is available to help qualified students pursue their education and their careers.
Jump to Journalism Without Walls Scholarships
Past Scholarship Winners
Application deadline: Coming Soon
$2,500 Amon Scholarship
Criteria:
- Journalism major
- Full-time junior or senior
- 3.0 GPA, minimum
- Unmet financial need, as demonstrated by the FAFSA
Submission Materials:
- 3 examples of outstanding journalism
- Personal statement that presents your qualifications for the scholarship (300-400 words)
- Essay detailing your journalistic aspirations and how you will achieve them (500-750 words)
- 2 academic or professional references
About the Scholarship
The Robert and Rhoda Amon Memorial Scholarship rewards an outstanding junior or senior majoring in journalism who has demonstrated a commitment to journalism, writes well in print or online, excels in class, and demonstrates a financial need for the scholarship. The winner of the Amon Memorial Scholarship will receive an award to be applied towards tuition at Stony Brook University. This scholarship honors the memory of Robert and Rhoda Amon, journalists who lived in Port Washington.
He was also a maritime historian who had worked as a press aide to New York City Mayor Beame. He died in 1992. She was a reporter for Newsday for 42 years, chronicling social trends and writing about the lives of ordinary people. She was among a group of women who fought for equal treatment at Newsday, a fight that led to a federal discrimination lawsuit that changed Newsday’s hiring practices. Rhoda Amon wrote her last story for Newsday in 2008, a week before she died of breast cancer at age 85.
$2,000 Aronson & Virag Scholarship
Criteria:
- Junior or senior, including graduating senior
- Journalism major or minor
- Full-time student
Submission Materials:
- 3 examples of feature or narrative stories done for an upper-level journalism course at Stony Brook
- Essay about how your background shaped your interest in writing and what writing means to you (800-1,000 words)
- Essay detailing your journalistic aspirations and how you will achieve them (500-750 words)
- 2 academic or professional references
About the Scholarship
Journalists Harvey Aronson and Irene Virag established this scholarship in 2013 to inspire students to recognize and respect the special place narrative writing has in the world of journalism and to nurture their writing and story-telling talents. It is awarded to a junior or senior student who excels in long-from narrative writing and who shows exceptional talent, dedication and promise. It is open to journalism majors and minors.
The winner will receive an award toward tuition at Stony Brook University. Graduating seniors also are eligible for this award. Aronson and Virag taught in the School of Communication and Journalism from its founding in 2006 until Aronson's retirement in 2018. Virag continues to teach and serves as the SoCJ's associate dean and undergraduate program director.
The pair worked together for more than 30 years, and met and married while working at Newsday. Aronson was a feature writer, columnist, editor and writing coach, and Virag was a feature writer, garden writer and Home and Garden Editor. He edited five Newsday books and shepherded a package on the Baby Jane Doe case that was the centerpiece of Newsday’s 1986 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. Virag won that Pulitzer Prize as a member of the team that covered Baby Jane Doe, an infant with spina bifida, and the political struggle over her treatment. Both have written several books as well as for a range of magazines.
$1,500 Ayscue Scholarship
Criteria:
- Journalism major or minor
- Full-time student status
- 3.0 GPA, minimum
- Unmet financial need, as demonstrated by the FAFSA
Submission Materials:
- 3 examples of outstanding journalism
- Personal statement that presents your qualifications for the scholarship (300-400 words)
- Essay detailing your journalistic aspirations and how you will achieve them (500-750 words)
- 2 academic or professional references
Preference will be given to students participating in Journalism Without Walls, if a trip is planned.
About the Scholarship
The Catherine M. Ayscue Endowed Memorial Scholarship recognizes and provides financial assistance to a student from the Stony Brook University School of Communication and Journalism. The scholarship honors Catherine M. Ayscue, a prolific writer and lover of the arts.
Catherine was managing editor of the university’s literary magazine, Spoke The Thunder, a newscaster at the campus radio station WUSB, and worked with SBU artist-in-residence Francisco Donoso. She was named an Undergraduate College Fellow, serving as a peer mentor as a Residence Assistant and participated in the “Journalism Without Walls” 2014 program to Beijing, China. During her college search, Stony Brook rose to the top and was her first choice of colleges to attend; she often spoke about how much she loved Stony Brook University, her experiences, and the friends she made. Catherine Ayscue passed away in 2015.
$2,000 Chernow Scholarship
Criteria:
- Journalism major
- Full-time junior or senior
- 3.0 GPA, minimum
- Unmet financial need, as demonstrated by the FAFSA
Submission Materials:
- 3 examples of outstanding journalism
- Personal statement that presents your qualifications for the scholarship (300-400 words)
- Essay detailing your journalistic aspirations and how you will achieve them (500-750 words)
- 2 academic or professional references
This scholarship supports tuition only.
About the Scholarship
Former Stony Brook Senior Vice President of Administration Barbara Chernow and her husband, William Farber, pledged $25,000 in 2013 to establish the Carol Chernow Memorial Scholarship in Journalism. The gift endows a scholarship to support the development of young writers - a lifelong goal of the late Carol Chernow's professional career.
The Chernow scholarship is available to a qualifying full-time student enrolled in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. The recipient must demonstrate a desire to pursue a career in journalism with a demonstrated talent and interest in writing and language. Carol Chernow, mother of former SBU Senior Vice President Chernow, was a Brooklyn-born New Yorker, educated at Brooklyn College, who taught several subjects and grade levels in New York City public schools in Brooklyn and Staten Island. Along with her husband, Fred Chernow – a New York City school principal, administrator, author and motivational speaker – Carol Chernow wrote several books on classroom teaching procedures and discipline, some of which remain in use today. However, it was literature, writing and teaching effective communication to a diverse group of children and adults that became her eventual focus and passion.
Chernow believed that one powerful way to open doors and promote equal opportunity was to equip all individuals with better language skills. Beginning in 1963 with the publication of “Reading Exercises in Black History,” she turned her energies to both teaching and creating practical educational resources for individuals in various communities. She held that race, ethnic background, economic status, birth language or prior educational experience must not be barriers to learning effective communication in English for any of her students. In addition, Chernow realized that those differences offered educators the opportunity to create and utilize innovative material targeted at developing better language skills, reaching and engaging more students.
“My mother believed that effective communication skills – whether through the spoken word or on paper – were the first, best tools for anyone wishing to be successful in today’s world,” recalled Senior Vice President Chernow. “She said that people judge you on how well you speak and how well you write. This was the basis of her approach to teaching, and you could call it her affirmative action plan for her students.”
$1,000 Conway Scholarship
Criteria:
- Full-time journalism major
- 2.8 GPA, minimum
- Distinguished work in audio/broadcast journalism
Submission Materials:
- 3 examples of outstanding journalism
- Personal statement that presents your qualifications for the scholarship (300-400 words)
- Essay detailing your journalistic aspirations and how you will achieve them (500-750 words)
- 2 academic or professional references
Preference will be given for feature, humor or business reporting
About the Scholarship
The Daniel Conway Memorial Scholarship rewards full-time journalism major who has a distinguished record in audio and/or broadcast journalism. Dan Conway was a natural born storyteller. Although he was not a reporter, he was married to one and some of it rubbed off on him.
He developed an uncanny knack to get people to talk about themselves and made people feel at ease by using humor and warmth. It was a disarming quality that “good reporters” should strive for. This scholarship will go to an outstanding broadcast reporter that either shows excellence in in feature/humor reporting or business reporting, yes business, though it’s sometimes hard to find the humor in that. But Dan was a business major in college, and throughout his life he worked in business and he often used his humor to seal the deal.
$2,000 Crosson Scholarship
Criteria:
- Full-time junior or senior
- Record of high academic achievement
Submission Materials:
- 3 examples of outstanding journalism
- Personal statement that presents your qualifications for the scholarship (300-400 words)
- Essay detailing your journalistic aspirations and how you will achieve them (500-750 words)
- 2 academic or professional references
Special consideration will be given to students with demonstrated interest in, experience with, or commitment to advancing public affairs through ethical, respectful and fact-based communication.
About the Scholarship
The Stony Brook School of Communication and Journalism received a $50,000 gift from Elaine Crosson and her son Daniel in 2013, to establish The Matthew T. Crosson Memorial Scholarship in Journalism, which endows a scholarship to support SoCJ students. A portion of the funding came from donations from family and friends, and the full $50,000 was matched by a special grant to Stony Brook University from Jim and Marilyn Simons and the Simons Foundation.
Special consideration will be given to students with demonstrated interest in, experience with, or commitment to advancing public affairs through ethical, respectful and fact-based communication.
Matt Crosson, the beloved and highly-touted former President of the Long Island Association, a title he held for 16 years, died unexpectedly on December 23, 2010 from complications following a stroke. He resigned from the LIA earlier that year and accepted a job as the Chief Executive Officer of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. Following his death, Elaine and Dan moved back to their home on Long Island after Elaine accepted a position at Stony Brook University as Vice President for External Relations.
$1,000 DeWan Scholarship
Criteria:
- Junior or senior, including graduating senior
- Journalism major or minor
- Full-time student
- 3.0 minimum GPA
Submission Materials:
- 3 examples of outstanding journalism
- Personal statement that presents your qualifications for the scholarship (300-400 words)
- Essay detailing your journalistic aspirations and how you will achieve them (500-750 words)
- 2 academic or professional references
Submission materials should demonstrate critical thinking, a commitment to social justice and/or an ability to make complex issues accessible to all audiences.
About the Scholarship
George L. DeWan was an esteemed journalist who retired from Newsday in 2001 after 44 years of reporting on poverty, minority affairs, banking, gardening and, most notably, the history series "Long Island Our Story."
He died in 2014 at age 80. He was a passionate and meticulous reporter, with a love of history and language. He wrote more than 60 stories in the 273-day Long Island history project, which ran from September 1997 to June 1998, and spawned several books, a classroom curriculum, and other media projects.
$2,500 Klurfeld Scholarship
Criteria:
- Journalism major entering their senior (U4) year
- 3.0 minimum GPA
- Journalism experience beyond the classroom (internship, campus media)
Submission Materials:
- 3 examples of outstanding journalism
- Personal statement that presents your qualifications for the scholarship (300-400 words)
- Essay detailing your journalistic aspirations and how you will achieve them (500-750 words)
- Essay describing your experience in journalism outside the classroom and how it impacted you (2-3 paragraphs)
- 2 academic or professional references
About the Scholarship
The purpose of the Herman Klurfeld Memorial Scholarship is to identify and reward an outstanding junior journalism major, one who best represents the goals and mission of the School of Communication and Journalism and who demonstrates great potential to succeed as a professional journalist upon graduation.
The scholarship is made possible by the generosity of the Klurfeld family. Professor James Klurfeld is a member of the School of Journalism faculty, a Newsday columnist and a former editorial page editor at Newsday.
For more than two decades Herman Klurfeld was one of the most influential newspapermen in America, although his name was largely invisible to the public.
Klurfeld was the chief writer for Walter Winchell, whose column appeared in more than 2,000 newspapers in the 1930s and 1940s and whose Sunday radio broadcast was heard by millions of Americans. In his role as Winchell’s assistant, Klurfeld wrote several columns a week peppered with items ranging from the colorful exploits of Broadway personalities to the emerging threat of Adolph Hitler. He later wrote biographies of Winchell and journalist Drew Pearson.
Long into his eighties, Herman Klurfeld was still a compelling storyteller, regaling friends, family and visitors with his accounts of the famous, the powerful and of the power of words.
$2,000 McGinnis Scholarship
Criteria:
- Full-time student status
- Journalism major or minor, including graduating seniors
Submission Materials:
- 3 examples of outstanding journalism
- Personal statement that presents your qualifications for the scholarship (300-400 words)
- Essay detailing your journalistic aspirations and how you will achieve them (500-750 words)
- 2 academic or professional references
This scholarship supports tuition only.
About the Scholarship
This scholarship was endowed in 2015 by Marcy McGinnis, an accomplished broadcast news journalist and executive and former associate dean in Stony Brook University’s School of Communication and Journalism. It should inspire students to recognize and respect the special place broadcast writing, reporting and producing has in the work of journalism and to nurture their visual storytelling talents.
Selection will be based on a body of work that demonstrates dedication and excellence in broadcast journalism in the areas of reporting, writing, producing, shooting and editing video, and on-air performance for class and special projects. Video work produced in related on or off campus programs sponsored by the School of Communication and Journalism may be considered part of the overall body of work. Internships at broadcast news outlets and extracurricular work in the School of Communication and Journalism newsroom, studio and control room may also be considered part of the overall body of work.
Marcy McGinnis started her career at CBS News in 1970 as a secretary in the Special Events Unit and rose to fill several key executive roles, including senior vice president of news coverage from 1997-2005. In that role, McGinnis managed the network’s worldwide news gathering and news coverage operation. She was at the helm of the network’s coverage of the attacks of September 11th, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and Hurricane Katrina.
After leaving CBS, McGinnis joined Stony Brook University in 2006 to help start the School of Journalism. She established the broadcast journalism program and served as the school’s Associate Dean from 2007-2013.
After Stony Brook, McGinnis returned to broadcast news to help start Al Jazeera America.
Over the course of her career, McGinnis received numerous journalism honors including three national Emmy Awards for news coverage of Princess Diana’s death, selection to serve a three-year term as a judge for the prestigious Alfred I. DuPont Columbia University Awards, and selection as a judge for the Overseas Press Club Excellence Awards and the Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholarship Awards. She was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Marymount University (2005) and from Hofstra University’s School of Communication (2002). Having graduated from Marymount College of Virginia in 1970 with an associate degree, she was proud to earn her bachelor’s degree in History from the State University of New York in 2009.
$1,000 Schreiber Scholarship
Criteria:
- Rising junior or senior journalism major
- Full-time student status
- 2.5 minimum GPA
Submission Materials:
- 3 examples of outstanding journalism
- Personal statement that presents your qualifications for the scholarship (300-400 words)
- Essay detailing your journalistic aspirations and how you will achieve them (500-750 words)
- 2 academic or professional references
This scholarship supports tuition only.
About the Scholarship
The Paul A. Schreiber scholarship aims to encourage and reward outstanding student journalism. The overall criteria include a student journalist’s excellence in reporting, writing and multimedia; leadership; desire to pursue a career in journalism and being in good academic standing. Internship and extracurricular journalism work may be considered as part of the overall body of work. Demonstrated leadership qualities as an editor, news director or producer in terms of editorial policies, activities and impact.
Paul Schreiber, the School of Communication and Journalism’s former Undergraduate Director, is a journalist and teacher who brought newsroom reality into the classroom. As a reporter and columnist during his 33 years at Newsday, Schreiber wrote about thousands of interesting people. As an editor at Newsday, he oversaw the work of staff and freelance journalists spread all over the world. As a long-time instructor at Stony Brook University, he helped student journalists learn how to report and write clearly and effectively.
After graduating from the University of Miami, Schreiber was hired as a reporter by the Miami Herald. Schreiber joined Newsday in 1968 as a general assignment reporter. As Newsday grew, he become a national desk reporter, copy editor, assistant national editor, night national editor, day national editor, chief of the copy desk, editorial writer, news editor and business columnist. In his last role at Newsday, Schreiber wrote more than 500 columns giving readers an inside look at people “Doing Business.”
Between 1987 and 2000, Schreiber taught feature journalism at Stony Brook and was director of the journalism minor. In 2002, the Press Club of Long Island named him “Outstanding Long Island Journalist.”
He returned to Stony Brook in 2004.
He co-founded the School and co-created its news literacy program, taught and advised journalism students. He helped secure ACEJMC accreditation in 2015. In 2014, he was inducted into the Press Club of Long Island’s Journalism Hall of Fame. He retired in 2017.
Buskin Award for Campus Journalism
Deadline to apply: Coming Soon
This award is given in recognition of excellence, leadership and impact on the Stony Brook community.
Eligible juniors and seniors, including graduating seniors, can apply for a $1,000 award.
The committee also awards a Cub Journalist of the Year, worth $250.
Journalism Without Walls Scholarship Opportunities
Application Deadline: Coming Soon
$1,500 Ayscue Scholarship
Criteria:
- Journalism major or minor
- Full-time student status
- 3.0 GPA, minimum
- Unmet financial need, as demonstrated by the FAFSA
Submission Materials:
- 3 examples of journalistic work
- Personal statement that presents your qualifications for the scholarship (300-400 words)
- Essay detailing your journalistic aspirations and how you will achieve them (500-750 words)
- 2 academic or professional references
Preference for this scholarship will be given to students enrolled in the Journalism Without Walls trip
About the Scholarship
The Catherine M. Ayscue Endowed Memorial Scholarship recognizes and provides financial assistance to a student from the Stony Brook School of Communication and Journalism. The scholarship honors Catherine M. Ayscue, a prolific writer and lover of the arts.
Catherine was managing editor of the university's literary magazine Spoke The Thunder, a newscaster at the campus radio station WUSB, and worked with SBU artist-in-residence Francisco Donoso. She was named Undergraduate College Fellow, served as a peer mentor as a Residence Assistant, and participated in the Journalism Without Walls 2014 program to Beijing, China. During her college search, Stony Brook rose to the top and was her first choice of colleges to attend; she often spoke about how much she loved Stony Brook University, her experiences, and the friends she made. Catherine Ayscue passed away in 2015.
Rosenbaum Scholarship
Criteria:
- Journalism major or minor
- Full-time student status
- 3.0 GPA, minimum
- Unmet financial need, as demonstrated by the FAFSA
Submission Materials:
- 3 examples of journalistic work
- Personal statement that presents your qualifications for the scholarship (300-400 words)
- Essay detailing your journalistic aspirations and how you will achieve them (500-750 words)
- 2 academic or professional references
About the Scholarship
This scholarship is created to honor the memory, values, and ideals of Michael Rosenbaum, who believed deeply in an informed public, and a free international press. This scholarship, in his name, is designed to support young journalists who embody those ideals as demonstrated through their work and career goals.
Journalism Without Walls Scholarship
Criteria:
- Journalism major or minor
- Full-time student status
- 2.8 GPA, minimum
- Unmet financial need, as demonstrated by the FAFSA
Submission Materials:
- 3 examples of journalistic work
- Personal statement that presents your qualifications for the scholarship (300-400 words)
- Essay detailing your journalistic aspirations and how you will achieve them (500-750 words)
- 2 academic or professional references
About the scholarship
The Journalism Without Walls scholarship was established to provide support for students enrolled in the international reporting course. It is administered by the SoCJ and the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting.
External Scholarships
We encourage our students to seek out and apply for scholarships from outside of Stony Brook University as well.
The list below is by no means exhaustive, but opportunities listed here may be relevant to SoCJ students.
National Communication Association Legacy Scholarship
This scholarship is intended to broaden the communication discipline's relevance to various publics. It is open to undergraduates studying communication, journalism or a related field in the same city or region where the NCA annual convention is held.
New York Women in Communications Scholarships
NYWICI believes in empowering future generations in communications. Applications are open to students who live in and/or attend school in states including New York. High school seniors and full-time undergraduate students may apply.
NYWICI Scholarship Info and Application
Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholar Awards
Graduate and undergraduate students at North American colleges and universities or American students studying abroad are invited to apply for Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholar Awards. An applicant must be a college junior, senior or graduate student enrolled in a degree program at the application deadline and have demonstrated an interest in international journalism.