Eugene Area Radio Stations Awards 2021 Scholarships
June 15, 2021
NEWS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Eugene Area Radio Stations Awards Scholarships
Eugene Area Radio Stations – EARS – a non-profit trade association comprised of all Eugene area radio stations recently awarded $7,000 in scholarships to students in Oregon. Its goal is to support students pursuing a radio career through post-secondary education.
Three (3) students were selected by EARS to receive 2021-2022 academic year scholarships, because of the student’s strong academic qualifications, current/past work at student run radio stations, community service, and their declared interests in a professional radio career.
The EARS scholarship program selects one graduating high school student and one college level student, each to receive a $3,000 scholarship. Because of the strong field of applicants, EARS also selected an additional candidate to receive a $1,000 scholarship.
These EARS Scholarship Awardees include: Stephany Fatheree, Nyah Vollnar, and Ashlin Sanderson.
$3,000 College Under-Graduate Scholarship: Stephany Fatheree, a University of Oregon student from Makawao, Maui, Hawaii, with a UO undergraduate GPA of 3.97. Fatherlee will be a senior at the University of Oregon this Fall, majoring in a bachelor’s degree in Popular Music Studies/Audio Production with a career focus of audio production. In addition to her school requirements, she has worked as an on-air personality at UO student-run KWVA 88.1 for two years. She is a musician and audio producer with a love for working in a studio environment. Fatheree hopes to leverage her two years of radio experience to produce music and radio content. EARS is pleased to support Stephany Fatheree as she continues to develop her radio and music career in the Eugene-Springfield market.
$3,000 High School Graduate Scholarship: Nyah Vollnar, Oregon Charter Academy student, from Florence, Oregon, with a 3.0 GPA. She will be an online freshman at Portland Community College, starting Winter Term. Vollnar has been performing and singing since she was seven years old, many times singing the national anthem at large sporting events. She has been under performance contracts since she was 13; and is currently producing music for media production projects. Nyah Vollnar volunteers her performance talents at several charitable events in the Florence community.
$1,000 High School Graduate Scholarship: Ashlin Sanderson, Cottage Grove High School student, from Cottage Grove, Oregon, with a 3.8 GPA. She will be a freshman at the University of Oregon this Fall, majoring in Journalism. Sanderson has been team captain on the Cottage Grove HS varsity soccer team. EARS awarded this scholarship because of Sanderson’s interest in Journalism and her contributions to her high school and community, while continuing to work full-time and part-time jobs.
Total investment by the Eugene Area Radio Stations in the EARS 2021 Scholarship program is $7,000 in awards. Applications for the Fall 2022 school year scholarship program will be accepted starting January 2022 and will close May 1, 2022.
A career in radio broadcasting is fun, challenging, and provides the foundation for a lifetime of community involvement. Radio is alive and growing despite the introduction of digitally delivered audio. In Lane County over 91% of all adults over 12 years old listen to free, over-the-air radio every week. That’s over 286,000 radio listeners every week.
Eugene Area Radio Stations is a 501(6)(C) non-profit trade association comprised of 22 commercial and public radio stations in the Eugene/Springfield/Cottage Grove/Junction City market area. Its scholarship program has awarded over $100,000 to qualifying students over the past decade. Many of the recipients have active careers in radio broadcasting.
For more information:
Peter Powell, Executive Director
ears.peter@eugeneradio.org