Cronkite Senior Named Top Ten Scholar

For the second year in a row, a senior in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University has been named one of the top 10 journalism students in the country by the Scripps Howard Foundation. Deanna Dent of Tempe won a $10,000 scholarship for her academic and journalistic achievements. Ryan Kost, who graduated in May, won the Scripps Howard Top Ten Scholar award in 2007. Kost is now a reporter for The Associated Press in Portland, Ore. “We’re extremely proud to have two students in two years recognized in this prestigious competition,” said Cronkite Dean Christopher Callahan. “They’re proof that the school attracts – and develops – the nation’s most talented young journalists.” Journalism and communication schools can nominate one full-time student for the Top Ten Scholar program each year. From the pool of candidates, a panel of newspaper, broadcast and television network professionals choose 10 recipients for the $10,000 scholarships. Judges praised this year’s winners for their journalistic expertise and ability to work on a variety of multimedia platforms. “As the media industry reinvents itself, it is encouraging to see communications students like our winners in the pipeline,” Mike Philipps, foundation president and CEO, said in a prepared statement. “It is with great pleasure that we reward them for their accomplishments and encourage them to be the next generation of leaders.” Dent, who has a double major in journalism and fine arts, specializes in photography and also has been a reporter and videographer. She has interned at The Arizona Republic, the East Valley Tribune and The Bulletin of Bend, Ore. She also worked on the staff of ASU’s daily newspaper, The State Press and served as the paper’s photo editor. In 2007, she was a semifinalist in the Hearst photojournalism competition and was named a Chips Quinn minority scholar. Earlier this year, she was among the winners of the Roy W. Howard National Collegiate Reporting Competition. This semester, Dent is working as a reporter for Cronkite News Service, one of the school’s premier professional programs in which students report news stories for newspapers around the state. Dent has participated in three in-depth, multimedia reporting projects at the Cronkite School – on the economic revitalization of the Gila River reservation, on families divided by the U.S.-Mexico border and on the building of a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. Other 2008 scholarship recipients are from the University of Texas–Austin, Hofstra University in New York, the University of Southern California, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Minnesota, West Virginia University and Louisiana State University. The Scripps Howard Foundation has made $1 million in scholarship available to 100 students since the Top Ten Scholars program began in 1999. Dedicated to excellence in journalism, the foundation is a leader in industry efforts in journalism education, scholarships, internships, literacy, minority recruitment/development and First Amendment causes. It is the philanthropic arm of The E. W. Scripps Co., a diverse, 130-year-old media enterprise with interests in broadcast television stations, newspaper publishing and licensing and syndication.