Three Florida Seniors
Win DJNF Scholarships
T
he Dow Jones News Fund selected three
high school journalists as winners of its 2017
Summer Journalism Workshops Scholarship
Competition. The competition recognized the
best work by participants in eight Fund-sponsored
summer high school journalism workshops.
All three winners were among 20 students in the
James Ansin/Peace Sullivan High School Journalism
and New Media Workshop at the University of Miami.
Guided by workshop directors Samuel Terilli and Fred
Blevens, students produced a magazine, website and
several videos.
Casey Chapter won Best Multimedia for her
video about the Wynwood Maker Camp. Best
Photography went to Manuel Fernandez for his photo
accompanying a story about Miami’s transit system.
Sabrine Brismeur won Best Reporting for her story
about unreported cyberattacks on Florida businesses.
Blevens said, “We are delighted that our students were
able to win all three scholarships. These three students
BEST REPORTING
SABRINE
BRISMEUR
A senior at Cooper
City (Florida) High
School, Sabrine
Brismeur, won for
her article “Secretly
Unsecure,” about
the secrecy surrounding cyberattacks
and cyber security issues in Florida.
Blevens praised her dogged reporting,
“Sabrine chose to explore the huge
cyberattack on the Port of Miami. What
she discovered was an impenetrable
veil of silence, one that lead to the all-
important question of why. The answers
she found were stunning and chilling.”
were remarkably talented and extremely educable, a
combination that almost always spells success. They
also established themselves as extraordinary leaders
among their peers.”
For the competition, each workshop director
nominated up to three students, one for each category.
The nominees submitted an essay about their interest
in pursuing journalism in college and a piece of work
produced at the workshop. The winners will each
receive a $1,000 scholarship for the 2018-2019 school
year.
The winners were selected by six Dow Jones News
Fund alumni: Melissa Angell, a senior at the University
of Virginia; Amanda Eisenberg, Associate Editor,
Employee Benefit News; Charmaine Harper, an editor
at The Wall Street Journal; Lou Kadiri, Deputy State
Director for U.S. Senator Mark Warner; Jerry Schwartz,
deputy director of top stories and enterprise, The
Associated Press and Zara Stone, freelance reporter
and Silicon Valley Contributor at Forbes.
While Brismeur has enjoyed reporting
and editing for her high school
newspaper The Lariat, she says the
Ansin/Sullivan Workshop unlocked a
passion for research and investigative
journalism.
Brismeur wrote in her essay, “I realized
I loved the adrenaline of a telling
interview and the stress of running
around to make calls.”
“For many, journalism is about giving
a voice to the voiceless and telling
stories to the public. And while I agree,
journalism for me has been more about
the search: the tenacity, the honesty,
the unapologetic attitude to learn
what needs to be learned and put that
information out for the world.”
BEST PHOTOGRAPHY
MANUEL
FERNANDEZ
Best Photography
winner Manuel
Fernandez is
a senior at the
Belen Jesuit
Preparatory School in Miami. His
winning photo accompanied a story
about technological upgrades to Miami’s
transit system.
On his award-winning photo, Blevens
wrote, “Manuel had a tough assignment
that required scouting train passengers
on Miami’s Metro to find those who
might benefit from a new digital
management system. He found an