Elizabeth Stuart of Salt Lake City wins National Press Club's 2012 Feldman Fellowship for Graduate Studies in Journalism

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Jul 24, 2012, 01:42 ET

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Press Club, the world's leading professional organization for journalists, gives its top fellowship for graduate journalism studies to a long-form writer who writes about challenging topics such as human trafficking and immigration politics.

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Elizabeth Stuart of Salt Lake City is this year's winner of the $5,000 Dennis and Shirley Feldman Fellowship for Graduate Studies in Journalism. She will use the award for studies at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York.

Stuart, 27, is an enterprise writer for the Deseret News (circulation 160,000) in Salt Lake City, where she started as an intern five years ago. She was an editor for the student newspaper at Brigham Young University as an undergraduate.

She told the awards committee she is interested in long-form, narrative magazine writing and books. Areas of interest include poverty, incarceration, international development, and refugees.

"By going beyond the obvious, Elizabeth regularly creates memorable stories on incredibly important and relevant subjects that leave a lasting impact," said her editor at the Deseret News, Tad Walch.

The scholarship committee was impressed with Stuart's choice of subject matter and the quality of her writing. Her story on how a third of American children now grow up without a father at home began, "Two stints in prison, rehab and a probation officer failed to inspire Mike DeBoer to give up the drugs. Dirty diapers, peanut butter sandwiches, playing `tickle monster' with a giggly redhead who smiles his daddy's smile that's what did it."

Stuart is already an award-winning journalist, for her investigative reporting on education, law enforcement, and health care, recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists, among others.

In her application, she said, "While the industry fights to find its place in a world of push-button publishing and free information, I believe, as a journalist, I must fight to be indispensable."

"Our profession's evolution to keep up with a 24-hour online news cycle has not changed the importance of deeply researched investigative reporting," said National Press Club President Theresa Werner. "We believe Elizabeth Stuart is already accomplished in that field, and it is a privilege to be able to help her pursue her studies. We expect great things from her."

The Dennis and Shirley Feldman Fellowship is named after a journalist and public relations adviser, who put himself through grad school at night, and his wife. The award is endowed by the Feldman family and the National Press Club.

Supporting the scholarship fund

Tax deductible donations for all scholarships are made to:
Friends of the National Journalism Library
529 14th St., NW
Washington, DC 20045

SOURCE National Press Club