We believe everyone should have an opportunity to attend the MIPA Summer Journalism Workshop. That’s why MIPA works with our partners and supporters to raise scholarships for students to attend our summer program. You can help our efforts by making a tax-deductible donation.
Individual students may also raise money to attend the workshop by using SponsorMe, MIPA’s online crowd-funding tool students can use to raise money from family, friends and other people they know. We’ve also got ideas to help students raise money.
Deadline for scholarship applications: June 1. No exceptions.
We will notify all applicants by phone, letter or email within two weeks of the scholarship deadline about whether they have been awarded a scholarship. Late registration fees will be waived for all applicants who do not receive a scholarship and any early discount rates (if applicable) will be extended to those applicants. Questions? Contact us.
How to Apply
Students & Parents:
To apply for any of our scholarships, you must complete the following:
- A workshop registration (to enroll you into a workshop course) and any health or permission forms required for the program.
- Important: To avoid paying the full registration fee, choose Summer Workshop: Bill Now/Pay Later as your payment method upon checkout (instead of inputting credit card information).
- A refundable workshop registration deposit of $25 to hold your place in your preferred course. This replaces all other deposits or fees to hold your spot. (The deposit must be in a separate transaction from the workshop registration.) Students/parents may request the deposit be waived for a documented financial need. See more information below.
- The online scholarship application form, which includes:
- Information about the student;
- Student and parent financial information (voluntary) to show financial need (some, but not all, of our scholarships consider financial need);
- Answers to a series of questions about you (the applicant), including why you would like to come to the workshop and what you think you will gain from it (see below);
- A letter of recommendation from your student media adviser/journalism teacher. If you do not work on a student media staff, please provide a letter of recommendation from another teacher, administrator or school counselor who knows you well. Letters must be submitted with the scholarship application form. What if the person writing a letter wants to send it directly to MIPA?
What questions do we ask?
Our application questions should be answered by the youth participant. Be detailed and thorough with your responses. These questions and your answers should be treated like the scholarship committee is interviewing you. Your answers may be several sentences or a few paragraphs. If you only answer a few words or a single sentence, think carefully about whether you’re providing enough detail.
You may wish to prepare you answers outside of the application form and then copy and paste your responses in. If you leave the form without submitting it, your answers may be lost.
Here are the questions we ask:
- What interests you about journalism and media production? Describe the specific areas in which you are interested and/or topics you are interested in covering as a journalist or media producer. What inspires those interests?
- Why would you like to come to the MIPA Summer Workshop and what you think you will gain from it?
- What are your future goals and aspirations? Include plans for after high school, including career goals and/or graduate degree programs. How does your work in journalism and media now fit with those goals?
- Describe the experiences you’ve had with journalism and media production to date. This might include school-sponsored media (like a school newspaper, yearbook or broadcast program), journalism- and media-related classes, work for professional media (such as job shadows, internships or freelance work), or other activities you’ve done explore journalism and media. Be specific. Discuss any work you’ve done that is particularly notable and provide an explanation about what makes it special. If you have not yet had any journalistic experiences, you may skip this question (but please make sure you provide detailed answers about your interests and goals related to journalism and media in your previous answers).
- Describe a situation in which you provided leadership to your student media team. If you do not have experience working on student media, discuss a different experience in which you provided leadership to a team. (This may have been while serving in an official leadership role, or just as a team member.) What happened? What did you did? What was the result? What did you learn about your leadership style from that situation?
- List any notable awards or achievements related to any journalism or media work you’ve done.
- Is there anything else you think we should know about your interests in journalism and media?
We also ask for some basic financial information about the applicant and their parents to help determine when you qualify for any scholarships that require financial need to be considered. (Not all of our scholarships are based on financial need.) This part of the application form is voluntary and you do not have to answer every question.
- Youth participant’s annual income
- Youth participant’s assets
- Parent’s age
- Number of people in family
- Number of household members in college
- Parents’ combined annual income
- Parents’ assets
- Opportunity to describe financial need or other relevant circumstances.
A Note About Letters of Recommendation
MIPA asks that letters of recommendation be submitted with your application because of the chance a letter could get misplaced or that it might not arrive by deadline. An incomplete application without a letter of recommendation greatly reduces the likelihood of receiving a scholarship.
Letter writers should not include any private information that you (the applicant) has not given them permission to disclose to MIPA.
We do not consider these letters as confidential or secret. If a letter writer is not willing to share with you what they wrote about you, your application might be better served by a letter of recommendation from someone else.
Refundable Workshop Deposit for Scholarship Applicants
We require all summer workshop participants who do not pay the fee in full at the time of registration to pay a deposit to hold a spot in their preferred course. (Some courses fill quickly.) The deposit is applied toward the registration fee, reducing the balance due later.
For scholarship applicants, the required deposit is $25 and it is refundable — it is returned to you if the applicant receives a full scholarship or if they chose not to attend the workshop and let us know by June 30. The $25 refundable deposit for scholarship applicants replaces the normal deposit charged to other registrants.
This deposit holds your place in the workshop course of your choice until scholarship are decided (some courses fill quickly).
Youth participants or their parents may request the deposit be waived for a documented financial need. Please include a written request with your scholarship application.
The deposit is applied toward your registration fee if you do not receive a scholarship and still wish to attend the workshop or forfeited if you fail to let us know if you are coming by June 30.
Pay the deposit by mail:
Mail deposit payable by check or money order to MIPA, 404 Wilson Road Room 305, East Lansing, MI 48824
Pay the deposit online:
Please note: The deposit must be paid in a separate transaction from your workshop registration.
Learn About Our Scholarships to Students
Friends of Remington Scholarship
This scholarship, supported by donations to MIPA, was established in 2023 in memory of MIPA’s unofficial newshound. Remington never met a MIPA kid he didn’t love (and lick), and so contributions to this scholarship are dedicated to helping youth have a potentially life-changing experience at the MIPA Summer Journalism Workshop. Financial need may be considered. Apply by completing the student scholarship application above.
Stan Soffin Scholarship
MIPA annually awards one full scholarship to a student editor in honor of Dr. Stan Soffin, former director of the Michigan State University School of Journalism and the person most instrumental in seeing that MSU became the headquarters of MIPA in the early 1980s. Apply by completing the student scholarship application above.
Michigan Press Association Foundation’s Janet Mendler MIPA Scholarships
The Michigan Press Association, which represents the state’s newspaper publishers, and the MPA Foundation have been great friends to scholastic journalism in Michigan. The organization and its members care about the future of journalism and are investing energy, time and money into young journalists. The MPA Foundation’s Janet Mendler MIPA Scholarships are awarded based on need to students who are on the school newspaper staff. The foundation may award full or partial scholarships. Apply by completing the student scholarship application above.
Lansing State Journal Scholarship
The Lansing State Journal, through its fund at the Capital Region Community Foundation, will fund scholarships to summer journalism camps/workshops run by the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association based on the following criteria:
- Students should have an interest in journalism as a career choice.
- Students should be a high school student or an incoming high school student from a public or private school in the Lansing region, which includes Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties, as well as “ring” school districts in the newspaper’s coverage area, including Perry, Laingsburg, Fowlerville, Olivet, Bellevue, Portland Public, Portland St. Patrick’s Catholic School, Fulton, Ashley and Ithaca.
- If there isn’t enough interest from those districts, the committee may consider students from surrounding areas. That would include students in Livingston, Calhoun and St. Clair counties, where USA Today Co. also has newspapers.
- Scholarships will be awarded on a merit basis in coordination with the LSJ selection committee and MIPA staff.
Jeff Nardone Scholarship
This full scholarship was established in memory of Jeff Nardone, who was a long-time journalism adviser, MIPA leader and instructor at the summer workshop. The scholarship is open to all students, although interest in pursuing sports journalism and financial need will be considered in selecting the recipient. Applicants who have an interest in sports journalism should address that in their essay. Apply by completing the student scholarship application above.
Donald F. & Katherine K. Dahlstrom Scholarship
The Michigan State University School of Journalism and the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism awards this scholarship to a high school student with an interest in environmental journalism. Applicants should address their interest in environmental journalism in their essay. Apply by completing the student scholarship application above.
SPJ Youth Journalist Scholarship
This scholarship was established in 2024 by the Mid-Michigan Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists to support the activities of student journalists in the Lansing area and other parts of Mid-Michigan. Apply by completing the student scholarship application above.
MIPA Grants to Schools with New Advisers or Media Programs
Button-Olman-Mack-Rau Grants
Only schools or advisers may apply for Button-Olman-Mack-Rau (BOMR) Grants. MIPA will award grants covering a student’s summer workshop registration fee to up to two schools that are starting new student media programs or have new advisers. The BOMR grants are in honor of Bob Button, Gloria Olman, Larry Mack and Betsy Pollard Rau, journalism teachers and student media advisers who have been inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame. To apply, advisers/schools should prepare a typed letter telling about your new journalism program or about yourself as the new adviser and submit it to us with information about your and your school via the BOMR Grant application form. MIPA will begin reviewing applications May 15. Applications received after May 15 will be considered if funds remain available.