Press Club 2024-2025 Scholarships and Awards

David Dorsey, Connie Kindsvater, and Sophia Lowrie, upcoming sophomore at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg.

Emma Rodriguez is receiving the FGCU Endowed Press Club Scholarship for her junior year.

Jake Marks will be attending the University of Southern California.

Layza Pinero Resto will receive the scholarship for her senior year at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Madeline Laufer received a Press Club Scholarship for her upcoming senior year at Florida State University.

Salma St. Surin, along with Jake Marks, was selected as this year’s $1,500 Press Club Scholarship recipient.

Posted Wednesday, June 12, 2024 8:00 pm

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By Sophia Lowrie

The Press Club scholarship program was established in 2001 as a memorial tribute to the club’s founder, Terrence J. Miller, and has since awarded nearly $100,000 in scholarships to Southwest Florida college students located in Collier and Lee County majoring in journalism and communications. The Press Club strives to support journalists of the future and provides mentorship and guidance for each and every one of their scholarship students, pushing them in the right direction and motivating their journalistic endeavors. This year, five students will receive the Press Club’s $1,500 Scholarships, and one student will receive the FGCU endowed Press Club Scholarship.

Each scholarship winner will receive a student membership to the Press Club and be paired with a mentor from the club. The mentors aid the students in helping them. The Scholarship Committee is composed of members Rhona Saunders, Carole Greene, Karla Wheeler, Phil Beuth, David Mink, Jeff Margolis, George Lehner, Glenn Miller, and Scholarship Committee Chair Connie Kindsvater.

Salma St. Surin, Lorenzo Walker Technical High School 2024 graduate and Laws of Life 2022 Finalist, and Jake Marks, St. John Neumann High School 2024 graduate, were both selected as this year's 2024-2025 $1,500 Press Club Scholarship recipients. Surin will be receiving the Press Club Scholarship for her freshman year at Florida SouthWestern State College with Press Club Member David Mink as her mentor. Connie Kindsvater will be Marks' mentor, who will be receiving the Press Club Scholarship for his freshman year at the University of Southern California where he will be majoring in International Relations.

Mentored by Connie Kindsvater, Madeline Laufer, a 2021 Naples High School graduate, will continue her studies at Florida State University with the Press Club Scholarship for her senior year, and Sophia Lowrie, a graduate from Marco Island Academy in 2023, is set to receive the scholarship for her sophomore year at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg.

Another 2021 graduate, Layza Pinero Resto, from North Fort Myers High School, with Karla Wheeler guiding her as a mentor, will receive the scholarship for her senior year at Florida Gulf Coast University, where she's been chosen to be a Teaching Assistant twice for her Journalism professors. Emma Rodriguez, an honors college student who graduated from Gulf Coast High School in 2022, will be receiving the FGCU Endowed Press Club Scholarship for her junior year and has Glenn Miller as her mentor.

Annually, the Press Club hosts a wide variety of events, including luncheons, often featuring guest speakers, panel discussions, and even mixers, which are open to both members and scholarship recipients. Last summer, the Press Club kicked off summer with a "Sizzling Summer Media Mixer" at Downtown Social House in Fort Myers on June 21st. The event saw over 30 attendees, comprising local media members, PR experts, and freelancers. Scholarship students Sophia Lowrie and Emma Rodriguez also joined the networking event and had the opportunity to mingle with seasoned journalists and reporters, gaining insight on the members’ various journalistic achievements and experiences in the field.

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