Jay Kennedy Scholarship Deadline Looms

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.