Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
Two students entering their junior year at the University of Missouri School of Journalism have been elected as the 2025 recipients of the Rural Missouri Newspaper Scholarship.
The scholarships result from a partnership between the Missouri Press Foundation, the J-School, and the Reynolds Journalism Institute. Former MPA Executive Director Mark Maassen initiated the establishment of the scholarships in 2021, which requires recipients spend two years working at a rural Missouri newspaper following graduation.
Selected students receive a $10,000 scholarship from the J-School for both their junior and senior years. RJI provides $5,000 for a summer internship between their junior and senior years, and they receive $10,000 stipends for two years following joining the staff of a rural Missouri newspaper, in addition to their salary from the newspaper. The total value of each Rural Missouri Newspaper Scholarship is $45,000.
The 2025 recipients are Alivia Roach, a 2023 graduate of Jackson (Missouri) High School, and Audrey Ellis, a 2023 graduate of Dallas Center-Grimes High School in Grimes, Iowa.
Roach served a summer internship with The Cash-Book Journal in Jackson before heading to Mizzou. “It opened my eyes to the underappreciation toward rural newspapers, and how the simple support of the community can make a world of difference,” she wrote in her application essay. “To return to my hometown and offer my service as a journalist would be an incredible privilege, as I would get to serve the community of rural Missouri that raised me.”
At Mizzou, Roach has been a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, Kappa Alpha Theta, Matchbox Marketing, and StuMo (Student Mobilization).
Audrey Ellis
Since arriving from central Iowa, Ellis has been a Vox magazine contributing writer, a student worker at Digital Initiatives, and a member of Mizzou Women in Media and the Anthropology Student Association.
“My passion lies in serving communities like my own, where curiosity exists but resources do not,” Ellis wrote in her essay. “It is unfair to poke fun at rural communities for being uneducated and uninformed but offer no solutions to remedy their lack of knowledge. Quality journalism should not be a luxury, especially when journalism has been built on the notion of informing each and every member of the public.”
Alyssa Fitzgerald, a Boonville High School graduate who was selected for the Rural Missouri Newspaper Scholarship in 2022, will be serving an RJI-sponsored internship with the Jefferson City News Tribune this summer. Samuel Cox, a Logan-Rogersville High School graduate; Allison Boedges, a Hermann High School graduate; and Emma Jones, an Odessa High School graduate, are 2023 and 2024 scholarship recipients who are still pursuing their journalism degrees at Mizzou.
The Missouri Press Foundation will work directly with Missouri newspaper publishers to find the best match for scholarship recipients. The intent is for the student to fulfill the two-year post-graduation requirement at the newspaper where they intern. Newspapers will be expected to help the student find housing for the summer internship program and assist with finding housing for the post-graduation period.
Questions about the Rural Missouri Newspaper Scholarship can be directed to Missouri Press Association Executive Director Chad Stebbins at (573) 449-4167, ext. 308, or at cstebbins@mopress.com.
Applications for the scholarship are accepted at the beginning of each year, and funds are applied in the fall semester of the following school year.
