College Scholarships
The David J. Clarke Memorial Scholarship Grant is awarded each year to a student attending a college or university within our region and pursuing a career in any aspect of the television industry.
The scholarship is named in the honor of David J. Clarke who served on the Chapter’s Board of Governors for 23 years, 11 of those as Executive Administrator. In selecting the recipient, the scholarship grant committee considers academic excellence, interest in television as a career, personal character and integrity, and media experience.
A second $3000 Board of Governors Scholarship may be awarded at the discretion of the Scholarship committee.
Applications now being accepted!
For consideration of this award, applicants must:
- Complete the online scholarship grant application
- Write a personal statement
- Submit links to 2 examples of creative work
- Submit a resume
- Provide an unofficial transcript of grades
- Finalists will be required to participate in a Zoom interview with the Scholarship Committee
The scholarship will be presented at the Ohio Valley Regional EMMY® Awards Ceremony on July 29th at the Lawrenceburg Event Center in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
Questions?
Deadline to apply: May 31, 2023
To submit, complete the online scholarship application form.
2022 Ohio Valley Chapter Scholarship Recipients
The Ohio Valley Chapter selected 2 scholarship recipients for 2022. John Ortiz Vargas a 2022 graduate of Kenyon College, received a $5,000 grant after being selected among those area college students who applied for the Ohio Valley Chapter’s annual David J. Clarke Memorial Scholarship. Chloe Otterback, a junior studying media production at the University of Cincinnati, was the recipient of the $3,000 Board of Governors scholarship.
John Ortiz Vargas
Kenyon College
Class of 2022
John Ortiz Vargas is a recent graduate of Kenyon College with a degree in Film and History with a minor in Latin Studies. John plans to pursue a career in documentary filmmaking, starting by pursuing the Social Documentary MFA program at UC Santa Cruz. Through this MFA program, Vargas intends to develop a documentary or docuseries in collaboration with the Bribri Indigenous people. Showcasing the movement for Indigenous rights in his home country, as well as the human rights abuses sponsored by the government. He hopes his project will generate further pressure for the adequate protection of Indigenous rights in Costa Rica.
As an immigrant and person of color in the United States, John vowed to use film as a medium to give other marginalized groups from Costa Rica—Indigenous people in particular—a voice and a platform for social change. State-sponsored violence continues to devastate the movement for Indigenous rights in his country. This inspired Vargas academically to study the ways in which political stakeholders have perpetuated Indigenous marginalization in Latin America: I built an exhaustive portfolio of courses, including History of Human Rights; History of Law, Revolutions, and Social Change; and even an Independent Study on U.S. Interventionism in Central America. This education in history has provided John Ortiz Vargas with the background he needs to accomplish his goal of directing documentaries capable of generating social change in Latin America.
Chloe Otterback
University of Cincinnati
Class of 2024
Chloe Otterback is a Junior attending the University of Cincinnati, majoring in Media Production with a minor in Marketing. She has worked on a variety of projects in different roles including producing, directing, shooting, and editing. Otterback is passionate about sharing and uplifting underrepresented voices in film and media including women, the LGBTQ+ community, and BIPOC minorities. In the upcoming school year, she will be producing and directing a short film that features a woman of color. The film discusses the importance of identity as a minority in the American film industry, and the impacts of code switching on someone’s identity.
In addition to her film, Chloe enjoys collaborating across campus on various
projects. She has worked with dancers to take their choreography from stage to screen, working closely with dancers on campus to produce video content. In the past year, she has led the production of two dance features and served as a camera operator for the University of Cincinnati’s CCM Musical Theatre Senior Showcase. With these experiences, Chloe plans to continue to uplift the relationship between dancers and media artists, as well as work closely with instrumentalists, poets, composers, and visual artists to create engaging and influential media.
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