Scholarships for Scribes                                      December 2018     
In This Issue
2018 Scholarship Winners
2017 Wrapping Fundraiser
2018 Amplify Austin
Writers' League Launches New BWS Creative Writing Scholarship
Donor Thanks & Request for Donations

Quick Links
 

 
2018 Scholarship
 Applications 

Open Date:
February 1, 2019
Deadline Date:
April 1, 2019
Online GUIDELINES and APPLICATIONS
are available here.  

Thank You
Writers' League
Special thanks to the Writers' League of Texas for co-hosting our web pages and for your 
all-round support.
   
  Thank You to our
 Webmaster 
   Michele Mason

   BWS Committee  
Co-chairs
Jorjanna Price 
Elaine Davenport
Members
Fred Afflerbach
Sally Baker
Louie Bond
Janet Elliott
Joe O'Connell
Beth Sample
Jo Virgil
Emeritus Members
Betty Sue Beebe
Vera Preston-Jaeger
Gardner Selby
Taylor Skaar
Angela Smith
Jeanne Trevarrow
Felton West
Jean West  
Join Our Mailing List
BWS Scholarship Fund News 


Welcome to the seventh digital edition of the Bess Whitehead Scott Scholarship Fund annual newsletter.

This is a summary of events in 2018. It's been a busy year! 
2018 Scholarship Winners
2018 Awards Top Year's News
  • Three  $2,000 scholarships mark 28 years of supporting journalists and writers. 
  • Since the Fund's first scholarship in 1991, $72,800 has been granted to 60 up-and-coming reporters, writers and authors.   
Thank You, Headliners
     Special thanks to the Headliners Foundation in Austin, Texas, which recognized the 2018 BWS winners at its annual awards luncheon in September. 
     At the event, the Headliners Foundation awarded 15 undergraduate communication scholarships of its own and also celebrated the best of Texas journalism in reporting, photography, commentary and enterprise/innovation. 
     In the years to come we hope to collaborate more closely with this organization, which is associated with the Headliners Club and has been awarding journalism scholarships for over 30 years.  

Cecille Marcato
Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers
Scott Scribes Scholarship

Cecille Marcato
Scribes Winner
     "This is the nicest thing that's ever happened to me," said Cecille Marcato, 70, an Austin-based poet and teacher.  She will graduate in January 2019 with an MFA in writing at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, which boasts Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning faculty and students. 
     Marcato has attended Austin Community College and taken poetry workshops at the University of Texas at Austin. She also has studied in Mexico City, Paris, Vienna and at the University of Iowa. 
     After receiving her MFA, she plans "to teach creative writing at the community or four-year college level and resume my volunteer work" which, in the past, has led her to soup kitchens, Habitat for Humanity and public schools. She has offered free help in preparing college essays for low-income, college-bound students, and plans to continue that work.
     "Being part of and fostering a community of writers is wonderful for the individual soul and the world," she says.

Mary O. Parker
Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference
Scott Scribes Scholarship 
 
Mary O. Parker Scribes Winner
     "I need guidance in making the leap from being really good at nature writing to being really good at serious environmental writing," said Mary Parker, 51, in her application. She used her award money to attend the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference in Middlebury College, Vermont, this summer and reported: "What a great learning experience. I honestly believe this pushed my writing ahead more than anything else I have ever done."
     A Smithville resident, Parker works as a full-time freelance writer and instructor and has been published in dozens of magazines and literary journals. 
     Texas A&M University Press recently published her book, Explore Texas, a Nature Travel Guide, and there are two sequels to come, one for those with accessibility needs and the other for kids.  When we checked in with her in December she was in South America gathering material for a nature travel book about the Amazon Basin.
     Parker says the BWS scholarship "made my year" and was a huge morale boost, pushing her to take more chances with her writing. 

Corrie Coleman
Baylor University
BWS Journalism Scholarship 

Corrie Coleman   Journalism winner
     Corrie Coleman, a 21-year-old Baylor University senior, is a New Media Journalism major with a passion for shining light on some of the dark corners of the world.
     During the fall 2018 semester, she was editor-in-chief of Focus Magazine, a biannual student publication at Baylor. Using the theme "Fearless", the magazine featured topics such as local entrepreneurs, Waco activists and students fighting cancer.
     She also has written for the Baylor  Lariat student newspaper. During the semester before graduation in May 2019 she will continue her internship at 360 Solutions, a nonprofit marketing company which provides photography services to Waco nonprofits. After graduation, she plans to work as communications director at Graffiti Church in New York City.
      "It's such an honor to receive a scholarship in the name of Bess Whitehead Scott," said Coleman. "Her passion for writing and pursuit of truth inspires me as a woman, a student and a journalist." The scholarship's namesake graduated from Baylor in 1912. 

2017 Gift-Wrapping Fundraiser
 
End of an Era

THANK YOU,
VOLUNTEER GIFTWRAPPERS,
for 24 GREAT YEARS
  • 2017 marked the last year of the BWS giftwrapping fundraisers at Austin book stores. 
  • Since 1994, the volunteer giftwrapping teams have earned a grand total of $66,727. That is very close to the grand total of $72,800 awarded in scholarships during the Fund's entire 28 years of existence. 
  • The announcement that the BWS Fund is moving to online fundraising only is bittersweet for both the BWS Committee and our devoted gift wrappers. The win-win-win matchup of literary folks wrapping books at area bookstores to raise money for writing scholarships could not have been more perfect. 
  • Thanks for the memories and for your willing hands which have helped to make BWS scholarship winners' dreams come true. 
Camille Nerada
     


    2017 Total
       $2,580

    Top Wrapper   
  Camille Nerada      
(23 volunteer hours)
   
     


"SO GLAD I could help and give time to raise $ for the BWS Fund," texted  CAMILLE NERADA  (photo above at BookPeople on Christmas Eve), the BWS top wrapper in 2017, with 23 total hours. "Bess set a high bar and lived a life to motivate giving." This is the seventh time that Camille, who began volunteering in 2002, has earned the top spot.
      RACHAEL JACOBS,  SUSAN VIOLANTE, KATHY ROSE CENTER and KATE LAUDER  rounded out the list of very busy giftwrappers who were rewarded with autographed books by local authors. 
      Together with 36 others, they raised $2,579.58 in November and December 2017 during the annual fundraiser for the BWS Scholarship Fund. Every hour spent giftwrapping directly  benefits the writers (40 and older) and student journalists who receive the scholarships. 
     Coordinated by  JO VIRGIL , volunteers worked at five Austin-area bookstores: BookPeople and the Barnes & Noble stores at Sunset Valley, the Arboretum, Round Rock and the Bee Cave Galleria.  
     Counting the five top wrappers, half of the volunteers worked two shifts or more: Joanna Athey,  Sally Baker, Annie Brudno,  Elaine Davenport, Janet Elliott, Kathy Fitzgibbon, Claylene Jones, Nancy & Fred Meredith, Jorjanna Price, Ricki Ratliff, Beth Sample, Karen Trikilis, Jo Virgil and Blaine Williams.  
     Huge thanks also to  Stephanie Barko, Donna Birdwell, Ann Cabot, Samantha Clark, Dyanne & Javier Cortez, Cynthia Davis, Laura Eldredge, Grace Elinsway, Jacqueline Kelly, Peggy Murphy, Becka Oliver, Kay Priest, Jose Pruneda, Mindy Reed, Betty Rogers, Phyllis Schenkkan, Kaye Schultz, Gardner Selby, Sandy Simmons and Manning Wolfe.
     For the sixth year, Jo  arranged for the top wrappers to receive an autog raphed copy of a recent book by well-known local authors . A big thank you to these six Austin writers!  
  • The Midnight Assassin (true crime) by Skip Hollandsworth
  • Times New Roman (travel memoir) by Martha Miller
  • Shrouded: A Crispin Leads Mystery  by Meredith Lee (Dixie Lee Evatt & Sue Meredith Cleveland) 
  • Sins of the Younger Sons (novel) by Jan Reid
  • The Nearness of You (novel) by Amanda Eyre Ward

2018 Amplify Austin Fundraiser
 
  $2,850 in Online Donations;
 Over 50% Were New Donors 
 
For the fourth year, we participated in a community-wide day of giving called Amplify Austin on March 1-2, 2018.  
 
BWS FUND board members Sally Baker, Joe O'Connell, Louie Bond and Beth Sample set up Individual Fundraiser campaigns this year as part of our Amplify page. Together, the four earned over 70 per cent of our total. 

Thank You, Donors
 
Paul Alexander
Melody Allen
Kathi Appelt
Amy Asay
Art Baker
Sally Baker  (memory of  Kate Lauder)
Wayne Baker
Patrick Beach
Brenda Bell
Mary-Love Bigony
Karen Hoffman Blizzard
Louie Bond
Candee
Cash & Roger
Carol Flake Chapman  (memory of Gary Chapman)
Henry Chappell
Dave
Elaine Davenport & Blaine Williams
Diane H.
Mary Dines
Laurie & Drew Duncan
Janet Elliott
Melissa Gaskill
Debbie Hiott  (memory of John Kelso)
Mari & Dudley Houghton
Karen S. Johnson
Katherine Kerr Kubatzky
Sara Puig Laas (memory of Wilburn Laas)
Pam LeBlanc
Emily Moskal
Peggy Murphy & David Smith (memory of Angie Debo)
Joe O'Connell
Kim K. O'Brien
Mary O. Parker
Joe Nick Patoski
David Petro (honor of Jorjanna Price)
Jorjanna Price (honor of Sally Baker)
Ben Rehder
Angela Smith
Kirsten Voinis
Camille Wheeler
  • Four donors requested anonymity, and one of those donated in memory of Bess Whitehead Scott.
  • Special thanks to BWS Committee members Sally Baker and Elaine Davenport who coordinated the Amplify campaign, with a huge assist again this year from Diane Hernandez, who also designed the colorful infographics seen on our Facebook page.
  • Thanks to Judy Maggio, a veteran Austin journalist and friend of Bess, who provided a quote: "This is a watershed time in journalism. True, balanced, objective reporting is needed now more than ever."
  • Debbie Hiott, who was the Austin American-Statesman editor, donated via Joe O'Connell's fundraiser page in memory of columnist John Kelso: "We miss him terribly here at the paper, but know we are not the only ones."
  • Pam LeBlanc, who wrote about fitness and travel for the Statesman, said: "I am happy to support such a good cause - especially if it's recommended by Louie!" She is referring to Louie Bond, our newest BWS committee member, who is the editor of Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine. Thank you, Pam, and thank you, Louie!
  • Mary-Love Bigony also donated to Louie's page: "Back during the Watergate years when newspaper journalism played a starring role, I received a wonderful scholarship that allowed me to study journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. I spent 27 years as a writer and editor at the magazine where Louie Bond is now editor. I know how much it means to receive a scholarship. We're in this together!"  
New BWS Creative Writing Scholarship
    Writers' League of Texas 
  Launches New Scholarship

Bess Whitehead Sco
In December 2018, the Writers' League of Texas (WLT) announced it would begin awarding the Bess Whitehead Scott Creative Writing Scholarship in 2019. 
     This marked a homecoming for Bess and the scholarship. Once upon a time in 1990 the Writers' League, led by Angela Smith and Sally Baker, and the Austin Chapter of Women in Communications threw a 100th birthday party for Bess, who was the League's oldest member. Uniformed firemen stood watch near the cake with its 100 flaming candles. 
     Elaine Davenport and Taylor Skaar coordinated the party and went on to co-chair the BWS Journalism Scholarships, the seed money for which came from that event. Ten years later, a second scholarship, the Scott Scribes Scholarships for Ages 40 and Older, was added and included applicants with a creative writing focus. During her lifetime, Bess won awards for poetry as well as journalism. 
     As with all good stories, there were many twists and turns, including a move to the nonprofit umbrella of the Austin Community Foundation (ACF). Now, however, the creative writing part of the BWS Scholarships will go home to the Writers' League to begin a new life while the journalism scholarship will remain under the auspices of ACF.  
Donor Thanks & Request for Donations
In addition to receiving funds from holiday giftwrapping and Amplify Austin, we also received other private donations. 

A big thank you to the 2018 donors:

  

Philip Hauser

Margaret Kramer

Idee Kwak

Flo Ann Randle

Richard Santos

Terry Sherrell

Suzy Spencer

Rodney Sprott

Sara Stone

Karen Trikilis




OR

Write a check to BWS Scholarship Fund and mail to:
 
BWS Scholarship Fund
Austin Community Foundation
4315 Guadalupe, Suite 300
Austin TX 78751


We've been awarding scholarships to journalists and writers for 28 years. We thank our BWS extended family for another year of supporting the state's future writers and  journalists , and send you our kindest wishes for a peaceful holiday season.  

Sincerely,
 
Bess W. Scott Scholarship Fund Committee