The UMass Journalism department has announced 20 scholarship winners with the award winnings totaling more than $53,000.
One student, Cameron Pellegrino, won a pair of scholarships: the Milt Cole Memorial Scholarship and the William “Red” Curtin Memorial Scholarship. The department also introduced two brand new scholarships this year: the Dan Smith Visual Journalism Scholarshpi Established by Heidi Berenson, which was won by Julian Sevillano, and the Edward P. Bassett Family Scholarship for Public Service Journalism, won by Kyla-Journey Womack, Pearl Davis and Thierry Barbosa.
The full list of the 2026 scholarship winners for the Journalism department is below.
(NEW) The Dan Smith Visual Journalism Scholarship Established by Heidi Berenson
Julian Sevillano
(NEW) The Edward P. Bassett Family Scholarship for Public Service Journalism
Thierry Barbosa
Pearl Davis
Kyla-Journey Womack
The Dandley Internship Award
Valentina Ayala-Bustamante – Town of Amherst-DEI
Matt Ford-Wellman – Cape Cod Baseball League
The Bacherman Award
Zahara Vanderpuye – SBS in DC
Jessie Romero –Amherst Business Improvement District
The Thomas Family Scholarship
Hannah Sullivan – Cape Cod Baseball League
The Journalism Award for Summer Internship
Tamia Johnson – Commonwealth of Massachusetts
The Milt Cole Memorial Scholarship
Cameron Pellegrino – The Boston Globe
The Rhonda Swan Memorial Scholarship
Shon Henderson
The Megan S. Daley Scholarship
Chantelle Nguyen
Dayaun Taylor
The Lawrence Dana Pinkham Study Abroad Scholarship
Olyvia Paquette
The Chester Weinerman Collegian Journalism Scholarship
Caroline Burge
The William “Red” Curtin Memorial Scholarship
Cameron Pellegrino
The Sam Butterfield Daily Collegian Memorial Scholarship
George Coulouras
The Karen List Award for Excellence in Student Reporting
Grace Chai (Read Grace's award-winning story here)
UMass Journalism Community Storytelling Award
Ezekiel Altman (Read Ezekiel's award-winning story here)
Robert Crowley Memorial Prize for Excellence in Collegian Column Writing
Tymothy Brown (Read Tymothy's award-winning story here)