By Nicarlyle Hanchard / The Jambar
The sixth annual Youngstown Press Club’s Hall of Fame and Awards Dinner brought the largest crowd of local press members in years.
The event was held Sept. 23 at Stambaugh Auditorium to honor local media practitioners who have excelled academically and professionally. Diane Laney Fitzpatrick, executive director of YPC, said this year’s turnout shows increasing support for local media.
“We’ve never had this many people,” Laney Fitzpatrick said. “I think the people that we’re honoring tonight were such a diverse and interesting group of people, and it just shows the breadth of journalism and communications, and I just think it was a wonderful night with a great turnout.”
The scholarship awards were presented to Joslyn DelSignore, junior journalism major, and Omar Frazier, senior multimedia communications major, of Youngstown State University, Kaitlin Hogg, third-year journalism major at Ohio University and Maggie McGlone, senior film and media production and marketing major at Capital University. Hogg said being one of this year’s recipients is a surreal feeling.
“I’ve been involved in journalism for a while now,” Hogg said. “It started when I was in high school, and now being at university, it’s become such a prevalent part of my life, so to have it recognized and be honored for it is such a ‘pinch me’ moment.”
Hogg will be interning in Washington, D.C. as part of the OU’s Scripps in D.C. program. For students beginning their journalism career, Hogg said they should apply for available opportunities.
“Genuinely, the worst thing people can tell you is ‘no,’ and that’s so easy to bounce back from,” Hogg said. “Apply for scholarships, apply for grants, jobs, internships — just put yourself out there, do what you can, make yourself known, make yourself present and honestly, be annoying because that’s how you get known.”
Lori Factor, director of P-12 activities at YSU, received the evening’s Medal of Merit. Factor said being recognized by people in the field is always exciting.
“You don’t go into an organization and serve it to be recognized. You do it because you love it, and I have loved every single minute of working with [YPC] from helping with anything — speakers, events — I believe in the mission, and that’s really what’s important,” Factor said.
The event’s “Call for the Cause” was done by Factor. With close to $17,000 being raised in scholarship funds, Factor said that underscores the generosity of attendees and their support for future practitioners.
“It shows everybody’s belief in the future of journalism and media,” Factor said. “We can’t do what we do unless we show the next generation how invested we are. … Every single dollar goes right back into scholarship. We don’t take administrative fees. We don’t do any of that.”
Additionally, Laney Fitzpatrick said she believes the speeches given by this year’s scholarship winners contributed to the generosity.
“I think that the scholarship winners [and] their talks, the remarks that they made, really spoke to people,” Laney Fitzpatrick said. “Anytime that we can get a couple hundred people in a room, and they’re really inspired by young people entering the field of journalism and communication, it’s always a good night.”