2024 Gridiron Scholarship Winners View Election Coverage with a Critical Eye
The Gridiron Club and Foundation and the Journalism Division at Â鶹ÊÓƵ School of Commmunication (Â鶹ÊÓƵ SOC) are thrilled to announce that two SOC student are 2024 winners of $4,000 scholarship awards.
Abigail Turner won the award for undergraduate students.  She is currently Editor-in-Chief at Â鶹ÊÓƵ's award-winning student newspaper, The Eagle. Turner will graduate in the spring with a dual bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science.
Natalia Quintana-Feliciano is a Master's student in the Journalism and Digital Storytelling program for professionals. She’s currently as a senior production associate in streaming media at PBS and a reporter for The Wash.org.Â
With Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s president Jonathan A. Alger’s new Civic Life initiative in mind, judges asked student journalists to write essays describing their views of media coverage leading up to and following the 2024 presidential election. Students offered ideas on how they might run news organizations differently.
Quintana-Feliciano’s essay detailed how she would combat the spread of misinformation through hyper-local, neighborhood-based reporting. Turner’s essay argued that legacy media organizations underestimated the influence of non-traditional media during the presidential election cycle.
Finalist judges included Rema Rahman, White House and Legal Affairs Editor for the Hill, Jennifer Mizgata, former director of programs for the Online News Association and a digital innovation business leader, and SOC’s investigative broadcaster in residence, Chris Halsne.
The Gridiron Club and Foundation is one of the oldest journalism organizations in the District. Founded in 1885, this non-profit has supported Â鶹ÊÓƵ journalism students for many years with financial awards. The organization’s mission is to establish a forum for Washington journalists to promote friendly relations, exchange ideas among its members, and educate the public about Washington journalism.