EAST LANSING, Mich. – Jessica Godell, an Honors College junior in the broadcast journalism program at Michigan State University, has been named one of two scholarship winners of the Ronald H. Miller Broadcast Journalism Scholarship, open to students from accredited journalism schools in Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. Godell is from West Bloomfield, Mich.
The scholarship is sponsored by the Berrien Community Foundation and the award amount is $3000.
Godell is active on campus as an Honors College student, a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, a member of the Senior Class Council and a member of Students for State, part of the Student Alumni Foundation.She also has been working as a reporter and anchor on Focal Point for the past year. This past semester, Godell interned at WLNS-TV 6 in Lansing and previously worked at The Impact radio station on campus. She also studies Spanish and is studying abroad this summer in Spain.
After graduation next year, Godell wants to work in television as a journalist, perhaps focusing on health news for a major top-ten market.
Kim Piper-Aiken is the broadcast news faculty member who nominated Jessica for the scholarship.
“Jessica is deserving of this award because of her overall excellence as a broadcast journalism student at MSU. She is an Honors College student who maintains a high grade point average. Additionally, she has been an anchor and reporter for Focal Point, the student-produced television news magazine here at Michigan State, and will work as an advanced editor for the show next fall. I am proud of her progress and this award demonstrates her hard work,” Piper-Aiken said.
Ronald Miller was a longtime ABC News correspondent who moved to Michigan when he retired.After his death, his wife set up this scholarship as a memorial to him. The terms of this scholarship require a broadcast news professor to select up to three students to nominate from eight school in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois.
This is the second year the scholarship has been awarded and the first time an MSU student has received the award.
The MSU School of Journalism is one of the oldest, largest and most highly regarded journalism programs in the nation. The first journalism course was taught at MSU in 1910 and since 1949 the School of Journalism has been continuously reaccredited.