Another Success for BWS Scholarship Winners
The Bess Whitehead Scott (BWS) Scholarship Fund has helped launch dozens of writers into the professional ranks. Once in a while, one of them hits a home run.
Jacqueline Baylon, a scholarship winner in 2008, has landed a job at The New York Times. As a web editor, she will be posting content, photos, videos and interactives to the Web. She advanced to that position after working one year for Digital First Media, also in New York.
Baylon was 20 years old and attending Texas State University in San Marcos when she won the Bess W. Scott Journalism Award. At the time, she said she was drawn to journalism for the opportunity of “meeting people, being informed and never being bored.”
The Bess W. Scott Scholarship Fund awards two $1,500 scholarships each year. The Journalism Scholarship was created for college upperclassmen majoring in journalism. The Scribes Scholarship is designed for writers—age 40 or older—who want to advance their skills or make a career change.
This year, the deadline for BWS scholarship applications is Friday, Feb. 7. Applications will be evaluated by the BWS Committee. See www.BWSfund.org.
Since the program was created by the Writers League in 1991, the scholarship awards have totaled $50,300. The BWS Fund is housed at the Austin Community Foundation, but continues a close relationship with the Writers League. For example, many League members pitch in every December to wrap gifts at local bookstores to raise money for the scholarship fund.
Bess Scott was a pioneer in Texas journalism. She was the first woman hired as a news reporter at The Houston Post and later worked in the fields of teaching and advertising. She published her memoir, “You Meet Such Interesting People,” in her nineties. Scott was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 1994 and died three years later at age 107.
