Each year, the San Diego Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists awards scholarships to deserving local college students and recent graduates. It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to reward some of the talented and hardworking journalists of the future. This year we’re proud to present scholarships to five passionate students and graduates. We hope the award will ease their financial burden as they advance in their careers.

Grace Chaves

Grace Chaves is a rising sophomore at Point Loma Nazarene University and has been writing for as long as she can remember. She’s continuing her journey in writing by majoring in Multimedia Journalism, with the hopes of becoming an author and publicist.

Charis Johnston

Charis Johnston is a Multimedia Journalism and Graphic Design double major at Point Loma Nazarene University. She aims to find and tell stories that matter and currently serves as editor-in-chief of The Point.

Noah Lyons

Noah Lyons is an enthusiastic early-career journalist and a recent graduate from San Diego State University. Lyons’ work — which has been published in EdSource, The Daily Aztec and Online News Association — is primarily focused on arts and culture, education and feature writing.

Serena Neumeyer

Serena Neumeyer is a recent summa cum laude graduate from San Diego State University who finished the Weber Honors College program and earned a Liberal Arts degree in Journalism. Alongside her role as social media editor of The Daily Aztec, she led the publication’s first multimedia team to cover the Rolling Loud music festival in Los Angeles and was an original staff writer for AMOR magazine.

Julio Rodriguez

Julio Ridriguez is a writer and Sports Editor for The Sun at Southwestern College. He hopes to one day travel the country or world to cover sports such as Indycar, Formula 1, IMSA, WEC and the NBA.

Luis Zavala

Luis Zavala, 22 years old, is a Journalism and Literature/English major. He is a former editor and writer for the Southwestern College Newspaper “The Sun.” He will attend SDSU and continue his aspirations as a writer.