(Peter Hvizdak - New Haven Register) Former New Haven Register sports reporter and journalist Al Young speaks at the Walter Camp Football Foundation All-American Weekend 2017 Alumni Breakfast after receiving an honorary membership in the Walter Camp Football Foundation Friday morning, January 13, 2017 at the Omni Hotel in New Haven.

The AAJA Sports Task Force is offering a scholarship of up to $2,000 to current college students interested in pursuing sports journalism/media as a career through the Al Young Sports Journalism scholarship.

Al Young is an award-winning journalist who blazed many trails for Asian American sports journalists. He is the nation’s first Asian American sportswriter at a metro daily. He is also the first Asian American to cover the NFL as the New Haven Register beat writer for the New York Giants and Jets. While with the Register, he also wrote a weekly column that was the first in the country focusing on national and local personalities and trends in women’s sports.

Young’s career spans more than four decades. He was a writer and editor at the Boston Globe, USA Today, the New York Daily News, the New Haven (CT) Register and Bridgeport (CT) Post-Telegram.

In 2010, AAJA named Young to its inaugural honor roll as an “Asian American Pioneer in U.S. journalism.” He is a past president of AAJA’s Washington, D.C. chapter. Retiring in 2013 from the Boston Globe, Young is currently the advisor to the student newspaper at Quincy College in Massachusetts.

The application deadline is January 10, 2020.

ELIGIBILITY AND RULES

  1. AAJA student membership is encouraged for all applicants and required for the selected scholarship recipients. For membership, please apply online at www.aaja.org.
  2. Applicants must demonstrate journalistic excellence, a strong interest in pursuing sports journalism as a career. Selected scholarship recipients must commit to a minimum of five hours of volunteer work for the AAJA Sports Task Force.
  3. Applicants must be an undergraduate student enrolled full-time with at least 12 credit units each semester at a junior college or university located in the United States. Applicants must also be currently taking or planning to take journalism courses and/or pursuing sports journalism as a career.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Candidates will be selected on the basis of academic achievement, demonstrated journalistic ability, financial need, and commitment to the field of sports journalism.


APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

  • Resume
  • Cover letter (explain journalism experience – if any – academic accomplishments, career goals, community involvement and financial need. 500-800 words)
  • Essay (1,000-2000 words)
  • GPA requirement: Minimum 3.0
  • References (names and contact information)

The application deadline is January 10, 2020. Questions? Email Daniel Garcia, AAJA Program Coordinator at danielg@aaja.org. For more about the AAJA Sports Task Force, visit http://sportstaskforce.com/.

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