The National Cartoonists Society Foundation, the charitable arm of the NCS, announced the winner of the 2011 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship yesterday:

2011 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship Winner

March 28th, 2011

The National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF) is happy to announce the winner of the 2011 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship.

Diana Huh, is a sophomore at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where she studies history. Huh was chosen from over 100 applicants for the award, which includes a $5,000 scholarship and a trip to the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award weekend in Boston in May. The scholarship applicants submitted eight examples of their work along with an entry form that included short essays on their current and future plans in cartooning. Entries were judged by a jury of seven professional cartoonists who are members of the National Cartoonists Society Foundation.

Huh is an illustrator for UCLA’s newspaper The Daily Bruin and is presently interning at Greenhouse Studios assisting on coloring the comic “Mace and Sputnik.” She has also created an on-going web comic called “The Wayside Manor.”

You can check out her artwork on DeviantART. Diana is a tremendous talent. Congratulations!

Once again, the National Cartoonists Society Foundation will soon be bestowing some lucky and talented young student of cartooning the Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, an award of both prestige and plenty of dough for the recipient’s college education in memory of the late King Features cartoon editor:

From the NCSF Website:

Jay Kennedy Scholarship

The annual Jay Kennedy Scholarship, in memory of the late King Features editor, was funded by an initial $100,000 grant from the Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate and additional generous donations from Jerry Scott, Jim Borgman, Patrick McDonnell and many other prominent cartoonists. Submissions are adjudicated by a panel of top cartoonists and an award is given to the best college cartoonist. The recipient is feted at the annual NCS Reuben Awards Convention attended by many of the world’s leading cartoonists.

Applicants must be college students in the United States, Canada or Mexico that will be in their Junior or Senior year of college during the 2010-2011 academic year. Applicants do not have to be art majors to be eligible for this scholarship.

Along with a completed entry form, applicants are required to send 8 samples of their own cartooning artwork (copies only); noting if and where the work has been published, either in print or on the web. (See application for details.) DO NOT send original artwork.

DEADLINE: ENTRIES MUST BE POSTMARKED BY DEC 15th, 2010

The applications will be judged by the National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF) and the number of scholarships given out and their amounts will be at the discretion of the NCSF.

I served on the board of the NCSF for four years, and while I am no longer part of those in charge the scholarship is a great program and I will continue to promote it as much as I can. I am proud to say that 2009′s recipient, Chris Houghton, found out about the scholarship through The MAD Blog and applied…. how cool is that!

Having served on the scholarship committee, I do not envy those doing that job this year their decision. There was a lot of deserving and fantastically talented applicants in the last two years, and it was very hard to choose a single winner.

As you can see above, the deadline for submission is December 15th… which is two months earlier than it has been in the past!!! …so don’t procrastinate! Get that application and send it your artwork ASAP.

The deadline is looming large for this year’s Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship from the National Cartoonists Society Foundation.

From the NCSF Website:

Jay Kennedy Scholarship

The annual Jay Kennedy Scholarship, in memory of the late King Features editor, was funded by an initial $100,000 grant from the Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate and additional generous donations from Jerry Scott, Jim Borgman, Patrick McDonnell and many other prominent cartoonists. Submissions are adjudicated by a panel of top cartoonists and an award is given to the best college cartoonist. The recipient is feted at the annual NCS Reuben Awards Convention attended by many of the world’s leading cartoonists.

Applicants must be college students in the United States, Canada or Mexico that will be in their Junior or Senior year of college during the 2010-2011 academic year. Applicants do not have to be art majors to be eligible for this scholarship.

Along with a completed entry form, applicants are required to send 8 samples of their own cartooning artwork (copies only); noting if and where the work has been published, either in print or on the web. (See application for details.) DO NOT send original artwork.

DEADLINE: ENTRIES MUST BE POSTMARKED BY FEBRUARY 12, 2010

The applications will be judged by the National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF) and the number of scholarships given out and their amounts will be at the discretion of the NCSF.

No procrastination now, younguns! The competition is fierce but one thing is certain, you cannot win if you do not enter. The deadline is less than a month away. Don’t miss out. Here’s a link to the all-important application form!

Once again, the National Cartoonists Society Foundation will soon be bestowing some lucky and talented young student of cartooning the Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, an award of both prestige and plenty of dough for the recipient’s college education in memory of the late King Features cartoon editor:

From the NCSF Website:

Jay Kennedy Scholarship

The annual Jay Kennedy Scholarship, in memory of the late King Features editor, was funded by an initial $100,000 grant from the Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate and additional generous donations from Jerry Scott, Jim Borgman, Patrick McDonnell and many other prominent cartoonists. Submissions are adjudicated by a panel of top cartoonists and an award is given to the best college cartoonist. The recipient is feted at the annual NCS Reuben Awards Convention attended by many of the world’s leading cartoonists.

Applicants must be college students in the United States, Canada or Mexico that will be in their Junior or Senior year of college during the 2010-2011 academic year. Applicants do not have to be art majors to be eligible for this scholarship.

Along with a completed entry form, applicants are required to send 8 samples of their own cartooning artwork (copies only); noting if and where the work has been published, either in print or on the web. (See application for details.) DO NOT send original artwork.

DEADLINE: ENTRIES MUST BE POSTMARKED BY FEBRUARY 12, 2010

The applications will be judged by the National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF) and the number of scholarships given out and their amounts will be at the discretion of the NCSF.

I served on the board of the NCSF for four years, and while I am no longer part of those in charge the scholarship is a great program and I will continue to promote it as much as I can. I am proud to say that last year’s recipient, Chris Houghton, found out about the scholarship through The MAD Blog and applied…. how cool is that!

Having served on the scholarship committee, I do not envy those doing that job this year their decision. There was a lot of deserving and fantastically talented applicants in the last two years, and it was very hard to choose a single winner.

As you can see above, the deadline for submission is February 12th… so don’t procrastinate! Get that application and send it your artwork ASAP.

Artwork by Jay Kennedy Scholarship winner Juana Medina

A few days ago I wrote a brief post about last year’s dual recipients of the National Cartoonist Society Foundation’s scholarships. This year the NCSF awarded the first Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, an award established by a donation to the NSCF by KingFeatures in memory of the late jay Kennedy, to Juana Medina, a sophomore at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

From The Daily Cartoonist:

The National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF) announced the winner of the first annual Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, Juana Medina, a sophomore at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Medina edged out almost two hundred applicants for the award, which includes a $5,000.00 scholarship and a trip to the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award convention. She was chosen by a jury of ten of the nation’s top cartoonists.

Juana Medina was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia. She completed high school in 1998 then moved to the U.S.A. where she has lived since. For two years, she studied at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, D.C. and is now majoring in Graphic Design at RISD. She is a regular contributor to the College Hill Independent, a weekly magazine produced by students at Brown University and RISD. Her work has appeared in publications in South America and has been part of collective exhibitions in Colombia and Mexico.

In her application for the award, Medina wrote: “I grew up in a country where war has been a constant since long before I was born. Our voices have been quieted by terrorist acts and constant threats from both governmental and clandestine groups, up to a point where the smell of gunpowder and the countless bomb threats became a part of our daily life … I found situations where there is little I can do to change reality, but I have found in cartooning a voice that strongly reflects my feelings and intentions. I have found a way to raise consciousness without scolding, fuming or losing my stomach to an ulcer.”

Medina will receive her award and meet the professional cartoonists who selected her at the National Cartoonists Society’s Annual Reuben Awards banquet in New Orleans on May 24th.

As one of the NCSF scholarship committee members who juried the many submissions for this award, I can tell you the choice was not an easy one. There were many terrific submissions from a lot of talented and deserving students of cartooning. Picking one was no easy task.

Congratulations to Juana and to all the participants for making it such a tough decision. I hope we’ll see just as big a group next year. Visit the NCSF scholarship page to watch for details on the 2009 scholarship, to be released soon.

Christina Beard and Evan Palmer, 2007 NCSF Scholarship winners

In 2007 the National Cartoonist Society Foundation, of which I am honored to be a board member and to serve on the scholarship committee as well as chair the investment committee, gave away two scholarship awards to college students studying cartooning/animation. That year the awards were the Herblock and Mendez awards, named after the estates that provided the funds. This being our first year of giving out scholarships, we presented the awards to a single school, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), and they were dispersed to two deserving students studying comic art and animation.

Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending MCAD’s Annual Partners in Scholarship Luncheon, where I got a chance to meet the two students who benefited from the NCSF’s generosity in this, their senior year at the art school.

Christina Beard is a west coast native who braved the wicked winters of Minnesota to attend school at MCAD studying animation and comic art. She is specializing in character design and game design, and also does illustration and comic book work. After graduation this spring she intends to pursue a career in the gaming industry doing 3D illustration, graphics and design for computer games and programs. Check out her website for some great samples of her work.

Evan Palmer also had to face the cold hard realities of the northern climates when he moved here from Louisiana for school at MCAD. A traditional comic artist, Evan plans to pursue work in the comic book field after graduation and a planned internship with a comic book studio. You can check out Evan’s work at his website.

These young adults are very talented and were truly grateful for the scholarship awards the NCSF provided. In some cases it allowed a continuation of their education that otherwise would not have been financially possible. It was great to see the direct results of the scholarship money first hand, and I had a pleasant lunch chatting with Evan and Christina about last year of school and their future plans.

The NCSF’s scholarship program has changed a little (it’s no longer tied to a single school) but is fulfilling the same function this year and in future years with the Jay Kennedy Scholarship as well as some other awards that are available. The NCSF needs both applicants and, more importantly, continued donations to help more students like Evan and Christina fulfill their dreams of completing college and embarking on a career in cartooning. Visit the NCSF scholarship page for the address to send donations, and look for that to be updated soon with info on next year’s application requirements and deadline.