Media Contact: Micki Leventhal, 312-369-7383; mleventhal@colum.edu
CHICAGO, IL (October 31, 2008) -- Columbia College Chicago, the country’s largest college of arts and media, has created the annual Studs Terkel Scholarships totaling $750,000 to benefit Chicago Public School students who seek to pursue a career in civic-minded communications.
“Studs Terkel was the living embodiment of all that is best about Chicago,” said Dr. Warrick L. Carter, president of Columbia College, in announcing the scholarship program. “For years we have participated in honoring his contributions through the Studs Terkel Awards of the Community Media Workshop, which is housed on our campus. This new program, to benefit specifically the young men and women of our own public schools, is our effort to translate these values into educational opportunities.”
“I have received a lot of honors in my many years on this planet. This is the best,” said Terkel two weeks before his death. “Long ago I wrote my own epitaph: Curiosity did not kill this cat.
“Kids are the most curious creatures and to know that the passions and interests and, indeed, the hearts of public school kids from all parts of this city will be nurtured by these scholarships gives me hope that Chicago will sing with new and important voices. There are so many stories that still need to be told, so many truths that need to be aired, so many wrongs that need to be righted. I say to these kids: Be curious, be strong. Take the dough and use it well.”
The college currently offers about 250 “Open Door” scholarships to deserving CPS students, valued at $6,000 each year, for a total of about $1.5 million. These four-year renewable awards enable students who also qualify for state and Federal financial aid to earn a bachelor of arts degree with most of their tuition paid.
Columbia College will initially designate 125 of these awards as Studs Terkel Scholarships, and subsequently will seek to increase the number of awards through development of a Studs Terkel Scholarship Board. The scholarships, totaling $750,000, are in addition to the prestigious annual Studs Terkel Scholarship of $1,500, given each spring to a single promising communications student by the Community Media Workshop.
“Studs Terkel was truly one of our city’s first citizen journalists,” according to Thom Clark, co-founder and president of the 20 year old Workshop, which connects community organizations with the media to promote news that matters. “I can think of no better way of extending Studs’ legacy than by encouraging Chicago public high school students to pursue degrees in communications arts.”
The Columbia College mission is “to provide a comprehensive educational opportunity in the arts, media, and communications within a context of enlightened liberal education [and] to educate students who will communicate creatively and shape the public’s perceptions of issues and events, and who will author the culture of their times.”
The mission continues, “Columbia is an urban institution whose students reflect the economic, racial, cultural, and educational diversity of contemporary America. Columbia conducts education in close relationship to a vital urban reality and serves an important civic purpose by active engagement in the life and culture of the City of Chicago.”
Dr. Carter said, “When we educate young Chicagoans consistent with our mission to shape perceptions, author our culture, celebrate diversity and promote this ‘vital urban reality’ – all that could be summed up in a phrase: ‘be like Studs.’ That’s the legacy we hope to continue to promote through the Studs Terkel Scholarships.
“We have strong departments of Journalism, Television, Radio, Interactive Arts & Media, Audio Arts and Acoustics, Film and Video, and Marketing Communication. And in our liberal arts and sciences, and our fine and performing arts departments, as well, we are committed to the development of communication arts to advance ethical civic engagement in the life of our community. All our students will benefit from helping to carry the Studs Terkel flame in the years to come.
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