John D. Graham Scholarship

Presented by the PRSA Foundation, Inc.
Sponsored by Fleishman-Hillard International Communications

2010 application form: Word | pdf

Deadline: June 14, 2010
Award: $5,000

Will you be a public relations senior this fall?

If so, we invite you to participate in the John D. Graham Scholarship competition, an award presented by the PRSA Foundation, Inc. and sponsored by Fleishman-Hillard International Communications.

The top honoree will receive a $3,000 scholarship, and two runners-up each will receive $1,000 scholarships.

Application requirements are described below. There is no limit to the number of applicants from a PRSSA Chapter in good standing, and applicants do not have to be affiliated with PRSSA.

Winners will be announced in August 2010. Recognition certificates will be presented to each of the three honorees at the Awards Ceremony and Dinner, Oct. 18, at the PRSSA 2010 National Conference in Washington, D.C.

Entries will be judged by a committee of public relations professionals who will select the scholarship recipients.

Eligibility

Candidates must be enrolled in a journalism program, public relations studies or courses preparing for a career in public relations, and entering his or her senior year of undergraduate studies in fall 2010.

An official nomination form must be:

Completed by the candidate as directed, signed by the candidate, and then signed by a faculty member or PRSSA Advisor.
Four copies of the entire application must be mailed to PRSSA, and must arrive (not simply be postmarked) by the application deadline. Copies may be front and back.

The completed form must be accompanied by:

A letter of no more than two pages from either a faculty member or PRSSA Professional Advisor.
No more than two additional letters of recommendation from internship employers, educators or others. Each may be no more than two pages.
A one page résumé.

The application materials:

Must be typed.
May not contain any information or documents other than those specified above.
Should be carefully reviewed for typos, spelling and grammatical errors. Applications with excessive errors will be automatically disqualified.

The deadline for the 2010 application (four copies of the nomination form, résumé and supporting letters) must all be received at PRSSA Headquarters by 5 p.m. EDT, Monday, June 14.

Send the materials to:

PRSSA — John D. Graham Scholarship

33 Maiden Lane, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10038

Judging Criteria

Applications will be judged using the following criteria.

Academic achievement in public relations and overall studies
Demonstrated leadership
Practical experience, e.g. internships, other work/service
Commitment to public relations, particularly as expressed in the candidate’s statement
Writing skills as demonstrated throughout the application
Letters of recommendation

About John D. Graham

August 10, 2009: New PRSA Foundation Scholarship for Public Relations Students Honors John D. Graham of Fleishman-Hillard

John D. Graham, APR, Fellow PRSA, joined Fleishman-Hillard in 1966, became the firm’s president and CEO in 1974, and was named chairman in 1988. Under his leadership, Fleishman-Hillard has grown from a single office to a global team of more than 2,000 professionals that serves clients from offices in 25 countries throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, South Africa, and Latin America. Under Graham’s direction, the firm has built a strong reputation for excellent client service and a strong company culture founded on teamwork, integrity, and personal commitment.

Graham’s industry leadership has been widely recognized over the years. In 1994, he was selected as PR Professional of the Year by the readers of PR News. In 2000, Graham became only the third agency PR executive to be inducted into the Arthur W. Page Society Hall of Fame. In 2001, he was named PR Professional of the Year by PRWeek, and in 2002, the University of Missouri-Columbia awarded him the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism. In 2003, Graham received PRSA’s prestigious Gold Anvil award for his personal achievements during his career and he also was given the SABRE Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Public Relations from one of the industry’s most influential publications, The Holmes Report.

In addition to his decades of active involvement in PRSA, Graham is a founder and past chairman of the Council of Public Relations Firms and a member of various other public relations organizations, including The Seminar, the Arthur W. Page Society, the Wisemen, the PRSA College of Fellows and the International Public Relations Association.

He attended the University of Missouri on both an athletic and a curator’s scholarship and graduated from the School of Journalism.