The award comes with guaranteed internships over the next two summers and up to $20,000 for expenses in her junior and senior years.
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Elon University junior Gloria So was awarded the LIN Media Digital Scholarship Award for 2012, a national award that will pay up to $20,000 annually in expenses for tuition, fees, books, room and board for her junior and senior years.
So will be required to participate in LIN’s training program at a LIN television station for two summers in 2012 and 2013, and then she will be offered a minimum of two years employment at one of LIN’s stations. So will begin her training at WOOD TV8, an NBC affiliate in Grand Rapids, Mich.
So said she’ll be asked to complete a number of tasks during her internship, including some reporting and photography. She said she’s excited about the opportunity because it will allow her to complete a variety of assignments.
“It had a little bit of everything I wanted: editing, shooting, writing,” So said. “It represented a broad range of interests that align with mine.”
So is an Honors Fellow and an independent major in Human Rights and Social Justice Activism, which draws on courses from the School of Communications, Human Services, Art and Anthropology. Her major, she said, “explores the origins of social and cultural constructions and contextualizes them through a visual and creative process.”
Within the School of Communications, So has taken the beginning core courses (Communications in a Global Age, Media Writing and Digital Media Convergence), and she also plans to complete the Web Publishing and Capstone classes.
She was tipped off about the LIN scholarship opportunity through an email sent from Communications Director of Internships Nagatha Tonkins.
So is active in numerous organizations on campus. She has worked both as an advertising sales representative and staff photographer with The Pendulum. She’s also a 2014 Periclean Scholar and a member of the Isabella Cannon Leadership Program. She is the co-president of Invisible Children, an Elon Admissions tour guide, the historian of the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, an Orientation Leader and a community volunteer. Before arriving at Elon, she traveled on four mission trips to do service work in Brazil, Panama, South Korea and the Dominican Republic.
So said her ultimate goal later in life is to go to graduate school or law school and then do communications work for nonprofit organizations. She is the second Elon student to be given a LIN scholarship. Alumnus Josh Chagani ’11 won the award in 2009 and now works full-time as a promotion assistant at WAVY-TV and WVBT-TV in Norfolk, Va. Both stations are LIN affiliates.
LIN owns 32 television stations 15 markets in New Mexico, Texas, New York, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Alabama, Connecticut, Virginia, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The company reaches 8 percent of U.S. television homes.