2026 Lester Benz Scholarship is open for applications
Quill and Scroll will award the $250 Lester G. Benz Scholarship to an adviser who undertakes a professional development activity over the summer or in the academic year. The award can be used to attend a National High School Journalism Conference, to pay for tuition for a university course in a relevant subject area, or for a summer workshop, the JEA Summer Advisers Institute or a local summer workshop in your state, to name a few.
Applications for the 2026 scholarship will close April 10, 2026.
Who is eligible?
Quill and Scroll encourages applicants who:
- Teach at a Quill and Scroll charter school (check here to see if you are and, if you’re not, how to get a charter);
- Have at least one year teaching high school journalism and/or advising publications;
- Have a minimum of one year experience teaching journalism or advising school publications;
- Plan to return to the high school classroom and media advising next year; and
- Will apply the information gained in the course work, seminar or workshop taken as a result of this scholarship.
The scholarship program’s objective is to identify and reward experienced journalism teachers and publication advisers (as defined above) who seek the opportunity to upgrade their journalism skills, teaching methodologies and advising techniques.
What’s required?
Complete the application form below this section, including the requirement that you submit two letters of recommendation from people who will attest to your journalism teaching skill, publication advising, quality of the journalistic writing course(s) you teach and the quality of the publication(s) you advise. The letters of recommendation should come from any of the following sources:
- Superintendent;
- Principal;
- Vice or Assistant Principal;
- Department Chair;
- Regional or State Scholastic Press Association Director;
- Scholastic Journalism Workshop Director;
- A faculty member of the school, college or department of journalism for whom you will take a journalism course; or
- JEA mentor, current or former.
It is the intent to select a journalism teacher/publication adviser who plans to take course work that is definitely beyond the introductory level. Descriptions of courses or workshops should be submitted with the application to help inform the scholarship committee about the plan of study. The award is named after former Quill and Scroll Executive Director Lester G. Benz.
Past winners
2024: Nicole Foster, Pittsburgh High School, Kansas
2023: Katherine Miller, Central Kitsap High School, Washington
2022: Sarah Nichols, Whitney High School, California
2021: Shari Chumley, Tupelo High School, Mississippi
2020: Laura Bowe, The King School, Connecticut
2019: Andrei Negri, Alief Hastings High School, Texas
Carr wins adviser scholarship, attends Gloria Shields Workshop
Adviser Ryan Carr from Braswell High School in Little Elm, Texas, earned the 2025 Lester Benz Scholarship from Quill and Scroll. Carr used the scholarship to attend the Gloria Shields NSPA Media Conference.
Carr has been teaching at Braswell for the last four years, and had heard about the conference for years from peers at Prosper High School, a neighboring school. “That was one of the big reasons why I wanted to go to Gloria Shields, is because they go to it every year, and they talk it up a lot,” Carr said.
He took students with him and said he enjoyed watching them work through new coverage experiences and learn new skills. Carr attended the adviser workshop track and said he enjoyed talking through a plan for the entire academic year all at once.
“I started a staff manual — we’ve never had a staff manual, so that was the biggest takeaway for me,” Carr said. He also took away lessons about running a broadcast program, one of the areas of journalism he said he feels less confident in teaching.
“It’s hard to specialize in everything but, but you kind of have to, as a teacher,” Carr said. “And that’s a cool experience.”
In addition to a broadcast class, Carr teaches journalism, photography, yearbook and newspaper classes. His favorite part, he said, is “watching the students take ownership of their product.”
The district Carr teaches in has a long tradition of scholastic journalism, but the pandemic forced the programs to shrink temporarily.
“When I took over at Braswell, they had all of the classes, but they were very low enrollment,” Carr said. He is slowly working on raising enrollment and expanding what each discipline of journalism produces.
Under Carr’s guidance Braswell has started printing newspapers again, started a website, purchased broadcast equipment and expanded the yearbook significantly.
“I just love helping students find and refine their voice,” Carr said. “As a journalism adviser, I get to witness them tell stories with our publications, yearbook, newspaper, broadcast. I get to see them ask tough questions, and there I get to see them really make an impact on our campus.”
Past Winners
- 2023 — Katherine Miller, Central Kitsap High School, Silverdale, Washington
- 2022 — Sarah Nichols, Whitney High School, Rocklin, California
- 2021 — Shari Chumley, Tupelo High School, Tupelo, Mississippi
- 2020 — Laura Bowe, The King School, Stamford, Connecticut
- 2019 — Andrea Negri, Alief Hastings High School, Houston, Texas
