National Press Club awards Edna Anne Rutland with the 2019 Julie Schoo Scholarship for Diversity in Journalism

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Press Club, the world's leading professional organization for journalists, has chosen Edna Anne Rutland as the winner of its 2019 Diversity Scholarship Award. The award is for graduating high school seniors and totals as much as $20,000 over four years.

Rutland, who graduated this year from Central High School in Macon, Georgia, will use the scholarship to study journalism at Florida A&M University.

"Edna wowed the judges with the maturity of her writing on issues such as race relations," said Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak, President of the National Press Club.  "We expect to see great things from Edna in the years to come."

Rutland has been taking journalism classes wherever she could find them since ninth grade, including summer journalism programs at George Mason University in Virginia, Wake Forest in North Carolina, and Mercer University in Georgia. 

"Edna Rutland will definitely be an asset to the field of journalism" and stands ready to "challenge the status quo," wrote Lyschel Shipp, Chair of the English Department at Central High. Rutland's goal is to return to Macon one day to become Mayor, Mrs. Shipp wrote.  She added, "I believe in the inevitability of her success."

Rutland wrote, "I have used whatever voice (or pen) I had to bring a diverse perspective to my work," including asking black or brown faces around her for their opinion on the story she was covering. "That's how you ensure that the ENTIRE story is told," Rutland said.

The Julie Schoo Scholarship for Diversity in Journalism provides $5,000 a year over four years. Named in memory of the late Julie Cooper Schoo, who was Executive Director of the National Press Club's Journalism Institute, the scholarship is awarded annually to outstanding high school students who are considering a career in journalism, and can exhibit how they will bring diversity to newsrooms.

Rutland is one of dozens of award-winners (please click here for the full list of award winners) to be honored at the National Press Club's 46^th Annual Journalism Awards Dinner on Wednesday, August 28. The National Press Club's Journalism Awards celebrate the best in American broadcast and print journalism, recognizing outstanding reporting at both the national and regional levels across every imaginable beat. To purchase tickets to this year's dinner, please click here.

CONTACT:
Joann Booze for the National Press Club; jbooze@press.org, 202-662-7532

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SOURCE National Press Club