NAJA scholarship recipient wins Hearst Journalism Award

Norman, Okla. ¬– A 2018 scholarship recipient from the Native American Journalists Association has placed in one of the country’s most prestigious collegiate competitions.

University of Oklahoma senior and Cherokee Nation citizen Storme Jones placed second in the Hearst Television News competition for a story made possible in part through NAJA’s Facebook Journalism Project scholarship program.

Jones’ award-winning package, completed as part of OU’s Washington D.C. program, focused on oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in Murphy vs. Carpenter, a case that could potentially affirm the continued existence of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s reservation in eastern Oklahoma. Jones was in the courtroom for arguments and Oklahoma commercial television stations aired his Washington coverage that evening.

In 2018, NAJA selected Jones as one of five inaugural recipients nationally for the $10,000 Facebook Journalism Project Scholarship and the timing could not have been better for him.

“When I decided to take the leap and commit to participate in my college’s Washington D.C. program, I wasn’t sure how I would pay for it,” Jones said. “I had worked all through college to help pay my bills and this would be the first semester for the program. The same week I agreed to go to Washington for the semester and I put in my two weeks notice at my job, I found out I had received the NAJA Facebook scholarship. It simply could not have come at a better time. Without this scholarship, I’m not sure how I would have made it work, living and working in Washington D.C.”

Applications for the 2019 class of scholarship recipients is open until April 30. Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and First Nations college students can learn more and apply on the NAJA scholarship webpage.