By: Cameron Pellegrino '27
On Friday, Oct. 3, the UMass Journalism Department hosted its 2025 scholarship reception in the Journalism Hub, located on the fourth floor of the Integrative Learning Center. A total of 14 scholarships worth a combined total of $33,400 were awarded to journalism students this past spring.
Department Chair Rodrigo Zamith and advisors Beth Wallace and John Ciampa handed out awards to the winners. The scholarships were granted for a variety of reasons, including internships, outstanding involvement in campus media, individual pieces of exemplary writing and funding for upcoming study abroad trips.
The department emphasizes real-world experience and helps students pursue it by offering a multitude of opportunities to receive financial support. The basics of journalism can be taught in a classroom setting, but some aspects require hands-on learning — a sentiment shared by Luke Macannuco, recipient of $2,500 The Milt Cole Memorial Scholarship for students interested in a career in newspaper journalism.
“I got to work in a real newsroom and I got to see what real journalists do on a day-to-day basis, and that’s invaluable experience,” Macannuco said of his internship at The Greenfield Recorder. “You can hear and read as much as you want, but you don’t know it until you’re in there. So getting that experience, getting to write a lot of stories, work with editors, work with people on the ground in communities, you just have to go out and do it if you want to do it.”
The scholarships are designed to directly support career-shaping opportunities, providing students a rare chance to put the pressure of finances aside and focus solely on journalism. For a number of recipients, that support has translated into irreplaceable exposure to practical journalism.
That certainly was the case for Ella Swinnerton — one of two winners of The Bacherman Award. The scholarship starts at $2,300 and is given to students who have secured a media internship. The award allowed her to continue her unpaid public relations internship with Enfield Loaves and Fishes, a non-profit soup kitchen in Enfield, Conn., where she focuses on donor cultivation and maximizing social media outreach.
“To me, this scholarship feels like validation for the passion and the effort that I put into my internship,” Swinnerton said. “I did about two semesters there unpaid, so it felt nice to be able to get some financial compensation for it. It gave me some flexibility, which I really appreciate. It’s exactly what I want to do in my career and I’m grateful that UMass gave me the opportunity to do it.”
The same can be said for Tym Brown, who took on an unpaid experience over the summer with the Cape Cod Baseball League. Brown earned the Dandley Internship Award and became one of two recipients to receive the $5,000 scholarship toward an unpaid internship. The award enabled him to cover collegiate summer baseball and hone his skills as a sports journalist.
“It means a big opportunity for me to expand my knowledge and experience in journalism,” Brown said of the scholarship. “I personally used it to go down to Hyannis and participate in an internship as a writer for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks. And that was that great for me, that was something that I’ll really value as a real-world experience and I can’t thank the journalism department enough for gifting me that experience.”
Bella Astrofsky and Dean Wendel were the two students to win multiple awards. Astrofsky collected a grand total of three: The UMass Journalism Community Storytelling Award, The Megan S. Daley Scholarship and a Field Scholar award. Wendel obtained the Robert Crowley Memorial Prize for Excellence in Collegian Column Writing and the Chester Weinerman Collegian Journalism Scholarship.
While not all recipients were able to attend the event, those who did were treated to sandwiches from Amherst’s The Works Cafe. The other winners were Grace Chai, Malik Pettiford, Julia Francis, Anna Carpinelli, Melanie Guilderson, Samantha Brennan, Erineah Quan, Anthony Buscarino and Liesel Nygard.
The reception highlighted the department’s commitment to supporting students both academically and professionally, while also serving as a celebration of the students’ achievements and the bright futures they are building in journalism.