Quick message because I just saw this notification
In the spring of 2020, everything sucked and I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to make everything suck a little bit less than it sucked at the time. So I thought, "Hey, it would be kind of cool if we could put together a scholarship to help out some J-school kids." I legitimately started out with a plan to see if I I could donate $1000 to the journalism school and help a kid out in a small way for a year of school.
Howard Richards suggested I should try to get the scholarship endowed. I had absolutely no idea what that meant. When I found out it meant we needed $25000 in the fund, I didn't think that was even remotely possible. I started by reaching out to people in the journalism business who had gone to Mizzou. Then they started reaching out to people they knew. That list started including a lot of people in the media whose names I knew, but who I had never met. Pat Forde and Brian Neuner, both people I admired in this business and over the years have been lucky enough to call friends, were particularly instrumental in spreading the word. Both have far more influence in this field than I do and were able to make a huge difference.
About a year after we got the scholarship going, Terez Paylor died at the age of 37. Terez was the best of this business in every way. He was a great journalist and a far better person. I wanted to somehow make this scholarship a memorial to him, but I didn't want it to come off as us trying to capitalize on his death. Through @ericedholm (another Mizzou alum who I consider myself extremely fortunate to have gotten to know over the years and who, not inconsequentially, was the person who called me to tell me about Terez's death), I was able to connect with Ebony Reed, Terez's fiancee and a Mizzou alum herself. After a couple of conversations, Ebony allowed us to rename this scholarship in honor of Terez. In the years since, she has put in countless hours to raise awareness of and contributions to the scholarship.
And now it's turned into a fund that I hope to push across the $100,000 mark this summer.
I'm going to be honest, guys (and girls). What we do here doesn't matter. Not even a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy and humbled that you spend your money here and that you think what we talk about matters. But in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't. Sports is always called the toy department of news and that's not really wrong. 99.9% of what we cover and what we talk about here doesn't have any real impact on anyone's life. This matters. If I do one thing that anybody outside my family gives a damn about, I want it to be this.
I know there are a lot of you on this site who have contributed to this scholarship. If you find yourself interested in contributing to this, whether you've done so before or not, every single donation makes a difference. You can do so here, either as a one-time or recurring gift. To all those who have already donated and to all those who might in the future, a sincere thanks.
mizzougivedirect.missouri.edu
In the spring of 2020, everything sucked and I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to make everything suck a little bit less than it sucked at the time. So I thought, "Hey, it would be kind of cool if we could put together a scholarship to help out some J-school kids." I legitimately started out with a plan to see if I I could donate $1000 to the journalism school and help a kid out in a small way for a year of school.
Howard Richards suggested I should try to get the scholarship endowed. I had absolutely no idea what that meant. When I found out it meant we needed $25000 in the fund, I didn't think that was even remotely possible. I started by reaching out to people in the journalism business who had gone to Mizzou. Then they started reaching out to people they knew. That list started including a lot of people in the media whose names I knew, but who I had never met. Pat Forde and Brian Neuner, both people I admired in this business and over the years have been lucky enough to call friends, were particularly instrumental in spreading the word. Both have far more influence in this field than I do and were able to make a huge difference.
About a year after we got the scholarship going, Terez Paylor died at the age of 37. Terez was the best of this business in every way. He was a great journalist and a far better person. I wanted to somehow make this scholarship a memorial to him, but I didn't want it to come off as us trying to capitalize on his death. Through @ericedholm (another Mizzou alum who I consider myself extremely fortunate to have gotten to know over the years and who, not inconsequentially, was the person who called me to tell me about Terez's death), I was able to connect with Ebony Reed, Terez's fiancee and a Mizzou alum herself. After a couple of conversations, Ebony allowed us to rename this scholarship in honor of Terez. In the years since, she has put in countless hours to raise awareness of and contributions to the scholarship.
And now it's turned into a fund that I hope to push across the $100,000 mark this summer.
I'm going to be honest, guys (and girls). What we do here doesn't matter. Not even a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy and humbled that you spend your money here and that you think what we talk about matters. But in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't. Sports is always called the toy department of news and that's not really wrong. 99.9% of what we cover and what we talk about here doesn't have any real impact on anyone's life. This matters. If I do one thing that anybody outside my family gives a damn about, I want it to be this.
I know there are a lot of you on this site who have contributed to this scholarship. If you find yourself interested in contributing to this, whether you've done so before or not, every single donation makes a difference. You can do so here, either as a one-time or recurring gift. To all those who have already donated and to all those who might in the future, a sincere thanks.
Join me in supporting the PowerMizzou Journalism Alumni Scholarship
This scholarship will benefit minority students studying at the Missouri School of Journalism who plan to pursue careers in sports journalism.
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