Foundation awards $19,000 in scholarships to future broadcasters

The Texas Broadcast Education Foundation has awarded scholarships ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 each to eight Texas college students pursuing careers in broadcasting in the 2016-2017 school year. The students were selected from a pool of 19 applicants from 12 different colleges or universities in Texas.

The University of Texas at Arlington and Texas A&M University in Commerce led the field in number of recipients with two students each being selected, including UT-Arlington’s Grayson Stidham and Richard Martinez, and A&M-Commerce’s Benjamin Laudermilk and Elizabeth Rodriguez.

Abilene Christian University’s Jonathan Raitz secured a second consecutive scholarship, as did South Plains College’s Peyton Sifrit.

Texas Tech University’s Amanda Castro-Crist was the only Tech student honored with a scholarship.

These $2,000 scholarships honor legendary names in Texas broadcasting, such as Belo, Bonner McLane, Tom Reiff, Van Kennedy and Wendell Mayes, Jr.  Another $2,000 scholarship named for Lady Bird Johnson, reserved for a student of the University of Texas at Austin, went unclaimed because of a lack of applicants.

TBEF’s largest award, the $5,000 Ann Arnold Scholarship, was presented to Madison Wichterich, a student at Texas A&M’s flagship university in College Station.

Scholarship judges reviewed multiple essays and examples of recent work, as well as letters of recommendation, scholastic achievement, community engagement and financial need.

Profiles of Past Scholarship Recipients

Questions? Contact TAB or call (512) 322-9944.