The Online News Association is happy to announce the two recipients of our Support a Journalist travel scholarships, which include free registration to the Online News Association Conference and Online Journalism Awards Banquet, Oct. 2-3, at the Hilton San Francisco, up to $400 in air travel and three nights’ hotel.

The recipients were chosen from the first eligible candidates to apply out of the more than 100 applications we received.

Andria Krewson, of North Carolina and a former design team leader at the Charlotte Observer, plans to look for ways to grow underoak.blogspot.com by drawing in more community members and to monetize it, and share traditional journalism skills and ethics as they apply to new tools with people interested in becoming citizen journalists for their own neighborhoods and interest areas.

Jonathan Mandell, of New York City and formerly with CBSNews.com, is a freelance editor for culturemob.com and a regular blogger for TheFasterTimes.com, both start-ups. He hopes to apply best Web practices and cutting-edge innovation to “these well-written and well-reported, but in some ways traditional sites.”

ONA09 Support a Journalist scholarships were open to journalists from any medium who are not employed full-time and would like to take advantage of the training, networking and resources ONA09 provides. Recipients were selected on a first-come, first-served basis, and their plans on applying their experiences were taken into account.

Again, thanks to members, friends, the public and The Daily Beast for support of our Support a Journalist campaign. Because of the overwhelming response for both membership and ONA09 scholarship applications, we plan to continue Support a Journalism drives to provide assistance with ONA memberships and training opportunities throughout the year.

Cheers,
Jane McDonnell
Executive Director