News Release March 14, 2006
NLGJA News > News Releases > March 14, 2006

Headlines & Headliners: National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association to Award First Leroy F. Aarons Student Scholarship Award at New York Benefit

WASHINGTON, DC – On Thursday, March 16, 2006, The West Side Loft in New York City will be the dramatic backdrop for the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association’s (NLGJA) 11th Annual New York Benefit: Headlines & Headliners, hosted by NBC Universal.

While Headlines & Headliners will play host to special guests as diverse as NBC News President Steve Capus, Greta Van Susteren of Fox News’ On the Record, Air America’s Al Franken, and Ted Allen and Carson Kressley of Bravo’s Queer Eye, the star of the evening will undoubtedly be Arizona State University (ASU) student Dennis Shane Mitchell. Before a crowd of some of the news industry’s most notable figures, Mitchell will be honored as the first recipient of the Leroy F. Aarons Scholarship Award.

Named in memory of NLGJA’s founder Leroy F. Aarons, the $5,000 award was established to support the education of a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) student who plans a career in journalism and is committed to furthering NLGJA’s mission of fair and accurate coverage of the LGBT community. The fund is administered through a partnership between NLGJA and The Delaware Valley Legacy Fund (a component of The Philadelphia Foundation), which serves to advance philanthropy within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. The Aarons Scholarship Award’s future was brightened late last year thanks to a generous $100,000 gift from CNN.

A second-year student in ASU’s prestigious Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Mitchell, among other awards and accomplishments, has been named the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association Journalist of the Year (2004), has been awarded the Al Neuharth Free Spirit Scholarship, and was a teen correspondent for The Arizona Republic. Dr. Mary-Lou Galician Head of Media Analysis & Criticism at ASU’s Cronkite School wrote that Mitchell “…is a mature, serious, conscientious, dedicated student who is clearly dedicated to social issues of sexual identity and representation.”

“I am proud to be involved with NLGJA and feel privileged to be the first Aarons Scholarship Award recipient,” said Mitchell. “The next two decades will be profoundly important for the progress of minorities in America. I think that fostering change in the mass media regarding fair and balanced coverage of all groups should be a starting point.”

“We were amazed by the commitment and achievements of all this year’s scholarship applicants. Dennis and his colleagues have set an incredibly high standard for this award,” said Pamela Strother, Executive Director of NLGJA. Strother served on the nine person jury which selected Mitchell as this year’s scholarship award winner. Other jurors included Robert Dodge, Marshall McPeek, Edward Alwood, Katia Hetter, Dane Claussen, Joe Cutbirth, Larry Gross and Bill Canacci. “I’m thrilled that we will be able to honor Dennis at such a spectacular event.”

Headlines & Headliners will include a cocktail reception, an intimate dinner with the evening’s special guests and a silent auction.