Student Scholarship
by Linda King, STC President
Application deadline: April 15, 2008
Those of us who have been in the technical communications profession for many years likely became technical communicators, not as an initial career goal, but as an opportunity to change career directions or to apply existing skills in a new way. We used our strong communication, organization, and interviewing skills, combined with curiosity about technical subjects, to survive and thrive in organizations that often had little or no understanding of the difficulty of technical communications and of what makes a good technical communicator. As the Baby Boomers among us begin to retire, demand will grow for technical communicators with strong communications attributes plus sufficient education and training to step into new communication roles that use rapidly evolving tools.
As a professional organization, STC seeks to attract talented people to our profession and to assist them in attaining the education and professional network needed to build a successful career in technical communication today. It has been a long-standing goal of STC Houston to establish and maintain a scholarship program for technical communication students. Largely through profits from many successful annual competitions, we are now able to do that.
The STC Houston scholarship program kicked off in 2007 by awarding two $500 scholarships. In 2008, we have available two $1,000 scholarships for deserving applicants. Both undergraduate and graduate technical communication students in the Houston, Louisiana, and Bryan/College Station areas may apply for a 2008 Marx Isaacs Student Scholarship.
To be eligible, applicants must be taking technical communication classes. Technical communication is any field that includes conveying technical information to others, including technical writing, translation, layout and design for print or screen, technical illustration, animation and multimedia, usability and human factors design, and Web design and architecture.
To be considered, each application must include applicant information, writing samples, recommendations, and an official school transcript, enclosed in a sealed envelope. Application forms and additional information are available on the STC Houston website at this location: http://www.stc-houston.org/scholarships.htm.
The deadline for our receiving scholarship applications is April 15, 2008. We will evaluate all submitted applications by using a standard rating form. Scholarship awards will be announced at the June meeting of STC Houston.
We urge interested students to prepare and submit their applications for consideration.
