INBA celebrates 2024 college scholarship winners
The Illinois News Broadcasters Association is proud to announce its 2024 college scholarship recipients. The students will receive their awards on Saturday, April 20, during the INBA Spring Convention in Rock Island.
The INBA has been supporting college students pursuing degrees in broadcast journalism since 1963. During that time, including the $13,000 in awards being handed out this year, the INBA has awarded about 213 scholarships worth nearly $202,000.
Here are this year’s winners:
HARRISON BELSANTI of Highland Park is a broadcast journalism major at Eastern Illinois University, graduating in just a few weeks. He has worked at WEIU-TV, the campus’ PBS affiliate, as a multimedia journalist, assistant producer and many other positions since January 2022. He’s also a repeat winner, having taken home an INBA scholarship at last spring’s convention. After graduation, Harrison will begin work as a multiskilled journalist at WQAD-TV, the ABC affiliate in the Quad Cities.
Harrison is being awarded the INBA’s Fred “Fritz” Sorenson Scholarship. Sorenson was a longtime reporter and anchor for WKRS radio in Waukegan and WCIA-TV in Champaign.
OLIVIA BENNETT is a freshman at Eastern Illinois University majoring in broadcast journalism and minoring in criminology. She works as a general assignment reporter and anchor for WEIU-TV and as a radio personality for WEIU Hit Mix 88.9 FM. Olivia is the first-ever recipient of the INBA Molly Hall Scholarship. Friends and family of Molly donated funds to establish this award after she passed away a year ago. Molly was an EIU graduate who spent 14 years in broadcast journalism starting at WTAX radio in Springfield, and then working as a reporter, anchor and Statehouse Capitol Bureau Chief for WCIA-TV. She went on to become executive director of the Energy Education Council.
MAGGEE BLEYER from Mount Carmel is completing her junior year as a journalism major at Illinois State University. She is heavily involved in student media, including being an assignment editor, anchor, producer and reporter at TV-10; a DJ at WZND; and a news and feature reporter and editorial board member for the Vidette. She was recently named the Vidette’s editor-in-chief for the upcoming year. Maggee also was an intern and digital media reporter last spring and summer for WEHT-WTVW in Evansville, Indiana. She also worked in student media extensively while she attended Wabash Valley College in Mount Carmel during her freshman and sophomore years.
Maggee is being awarded the INBA Mary McAndrew Scholarship. Mary was a longtime journalist who spent 18 years with NBC News and also worked for the Associated Press and United Press International in New York and WBBM radio, WGCI radio and USA Today in Chicago.
LAUREN BRENNECKE of O’Fallon, Missouri, is a media studies major who will graduate next month from Webster University near St. Louis. She is currently a newsroom intern for St. Louis Public Radio, and she recently signed on to work there full time for an additional six months. Lauren also has worked for the University Podcast Network, editing and writing shows.
Lauren is being awarded the INBA Ed Brown Scholarship. Ed was a professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and was a longtime executive secretary for the INBA.
DREW COFFEY of Mattoon is graduating in May from Eastern Illinois University with a degree in television and video production. He has worked at WEIU-TV for three years in a variety of roles, including reporter, anchor, writer, videographer, editor, studio camera operator, and graphics operator. He also works at Eastern’s on-campus newspaper, The Daily Eastern News. Last summer, he interned at WCIA-TV in Champaign.
Drew is being awarded the INBA Larry Wilson Scholarship. Larry was a longtime INBA member who served as news director of WSMI in Litchfield in the 1970s and ‘80s. He was an organizer and longtime supporter of the former INBA Road Shows and was a big advocate for involving students in INBA activities.
Thank you to the INBA Scholarship Selection Committee, which interviewed scholarship finalists and selected the winners. They are:
Devin Brooks, reporter/anchor, WQAD-TV, Quad Cities, a multi-time INBA scholarship winner himself.
Ryan Burrow, news director, WGN Radio, Chicago
Rachel Lippmann, justice reporter, St. Louis Public Radio
Emily Manley, the Missouri capitol bureau reporter for Nexstar
The INBA Scholarship program is supported through the INBA Foundation, which would welcome your help to continue supporting college broadcasting students. If you’re interested in making a gift to support that effort, make an online donation now.