The Society of Professional Journalists, Cleveland Pro Chapter awards the Porter Scholarship every year to one of the many bright students from the northeast Ohio high schools who plan to pursue journalism major in college.

The Scholarship is named in honor of Philip W. Porter, former editor of the Plain Dealer, who retired in 1966 and was a regular columnist for the Sun Newspaper until his death in 1983.

Jacob A. Gedetsis is this year's winner. He is a graduating senior at Benedictine High School in Cleveland. See him in a photo below, with Connie Schultz and Stan Bullard, winners of our chapter's Distinguished Service Awards, at the annual luncheon in May. 

The scholarship committee made special mention of Gedetsis' work as a student journalist on his school newspaper, of which he is the editor, and the freelancing work he has done for Cleveland.com. Here are a few of the comments from the selection committee:    

"Jacob is an engaging young man who is laser-focused on a career in journalism; he has demonstrated initiative and has held several leadership roles in his school. He is an engaging storyteller who answers questions thoughtfully and quotes Thoreau!"

It was heartening to hear him say at the interview, "I can't bring home grades that are not satisfactory. My parents work so hard to give me the opportunities ..."

"His work experience, at this early age, was striking and I believe he will make good use of the Porter Scholarship."

Gedetsis will be attending Syracuse University in fall, where he will be majoring in newspaper and online journalism. We wish him all the best!

We also have a couple of updates on past recipients of the Porter Scholarship.

When RTDNA (Radio Television Digital News Association) sent out a recent email featuring an update on their past scholarship recipients, the name David Louie stood out. He was their first scholarship recipient, and the fifth one to receive our chapter's scholarship, back in 1968 when he graduated from Lakewood High School.  

To read the RTDNA article about Louie's 42-year career at ABC News, click here. For most of that time, he has been at KGO-TV in San Francisco, where he is business editor and technology reporter.  

Our chapter also received a handwritten note -- what a rarity in this day and age -- from Savannah Kannberg, who received the Porter scholarship in 2011. She just finished her junior year at University of Missouri.  

Kannberg says that to fulfill a history requirement, she took a class on architecture.  She writes, "When I got back my final paper, my prof had written 'You write like a journalist' as the first comment!  I was proud to read that!"   

Photo by Jerome Masek At our annual awards luncheon in May, this year's Porter Scholarship winner Jason Gedetsis, left, posed with Distinguished Service Award winners, syndicated columnist Connie Schultz and Crain's senior reporter Stan Bullard.