Kayla Robbins (Decatur Texas, class of 2014) is one of only two students to be awarded the 2012 Agnes Cooke Scholarship by the Virginia Press Women, Inc.
Chico, 2011 ©Kayla Robbins
Virginia Press Women, a diverse organization of professional communicators who are women and men, and the Virginia Press Women Foundation are proud to offer a $550 scholarship to a deserving Virginia college student interested in pursuing a career in communications.
The Agnes Cooke Scholarship competition is open to any Virginia college student or to any Virginia resident attending an out-of-state college. Scholarship applicants must be planning a career in journalism, photojournalism, public relations or another related communications field. Applicants do not have to be enrolled in a journalism or public relations degree program to qualify, but strong evidence of a commitment to the field of communications is essential.
— http://www.virginiapresswomen.org/
While the scholarship competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students, Robbins’ entry consisted of images she created in her introductory photography class at Virginia Intermont.
In her recommendation, Prof. Joe Champagne states; “From her first semester she has shown a natural ability as an image-maker, becoming the first freshman to take 1st place honors in our Annual Juried Student Exhibition.”
The winning images “were created while on a college sponsored mission trip to help the people of Nicaragua. This work strikes an impressive balance between fine art and photo-journalistic concerns.”
Robbins is not new to accolades; she is also one of two recipients of this year’s Pinkerton Photography Award, given by the Intermont photography faculty to students who exhibit outstanding dedication to the craft of photography.