Nominate a student for Gwen Ifill award

Gwen Ifill moderated a panel at NLP’s fall 2013 forum where journalists discussed “America’s Changing Role in the World and How the Press Covers It.” Photo by Rick Reinhard

Are you an educator who has used the Checkology® virtual classroom this school year and have an outstanding young woman of color in your class who has particularly benefited from the platform? If so, we hope you will nominate her to be considered for a special award from the News Literacy Project: the Gwen Ifill Student of the Year Award.

Gwen was an exemplary and groundbreaking journalist (and an NLP board member) whom we lost far too soon. After her death in 2016, we established an annual award to honor her memory and express our appreciation for her extraordinary service to NLP and her commitment to our mission.

Gwen Ifill award honors her legacy

This award is presented to female students of color who represent the values Gwen brought to journalism as the first woman and first African American to serve as moderator of PBS’ Washington Week and as a member (with Judy Woodruff) of the first female co-anchor team of a network news broadcast on PBS NewsHour. The winner is acknowledged at a special event and receives an engraved glass plaque with an etched photo of Gwen and a $250 gift card.

You can read about last year’s winner, Valeria Luquin, here and watch a short video about her.

Nominate students by March 1

The short nomination form is available here; you may nominate more than one student, but please use a separate form for each. The deadline is Sunday, March 1. A small group of candidates will be selected to advance to a final round for which they submit short essays about their experience with Checkology and the importance of news literacy.

We feel privileged to have the opportunity to honor Gwen’s memory and inspire the next generation of journalists in this way. Thank you for helping us do so.