Four African-American College Students Named Chips Quinn Scholars

This spring 16 college students from across the United States are interning in newsrooms at 14 daily papers under a scholarship program established by the Freedom Forum. The Chips Quinn scholarship program was established to honor the former managing editor of the Poughkeepsie Journal who died in an automobile accident in 1990 at the age of 34. The scholarships, which are reserved for “students of color,” were established by Quinn’s parents who were active in the Freedom Forum.

Four of this spring’s 16 Chips Quinn scholars are black. They are currently spending 10 to 12 weeks as working journalists.

The four aspiring journalists are:

• Ashlee Clark, a student at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. A native of Louisville, she is interning at the Lexington Herald-Leader.

• Matthew Cooper from Oakland, California, is a student at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He is working at the Jackson Sun in Tennessee.

• Shawntaye Hopkins is from Lexington, Kentucky. She is a student at Western Kentucky University and is working at the Lexington Herald-Leader.

• Rickeena Richards is a native of Kansas City, Missouri. She is a student at St. Louis University and is spending this semester working for the Belleville News-Democrat in Illinois.

Copyright © 2008. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.