Student
receives top TV scholarship
By Sean Emery
On-line Forty-Niner
 Cal
State Long Beach student Megan Marlena,
who works as a morning news anchor on KKJZ,
and as a reporter and producer at the campus
television station, was one of two students
in the West to receive a scholarship at
the Associated Press Radio and Television
2003 conference.
Marlena, a senior broadcast journalism major,
won the Kathryn Dettman Memorial journalism
scholarship award, which is given out to
undergraduate students in broadcast journalism.
“It was a really amazing award to receive,”
Marlena said. “It was a tough process.
I had to write essays, I had to do phone
interviews, and I had to be interviewed
in a room with a bunch of journalists.”
Marlena grew up in San Francisco and moved
to Southern California after graduating
from high school. She attended Orange
Coast College for three years before transferring
to CSULB as a junior. Marlena started her
college career pursuing a degree in theater
before changing her major to broadcast journalism.
Marlena learned of the AP scholarship from
her news director at KKJZ. She began
the application process in October 2002.
The first part of the application process
was to write a series of essays on a variety
of journalism topics.
“It took a long time to put the application
together,” Marlena said. “When I found out
that I was one of many picked to go to the
second level of interviews I was very happy.”
After a series of phone interviews and a
face-to-face interview with a group of professional
journalists, Marlena was notified in March
2003 that she had received the scholarship.
She was also given an invitation to attend
the 2003 Associated Press Radio and Television
conference in San Francisco.
“When I was at the conference I realized
how big a deal the award was,” Marlena said.
“All these top people were coming up to
me and congratulating me. They made me feel
like I was a big part of this convention.”
The conference also gave Marlena a chance
to network and learn from the top professionals
in the field of broadcast journalism.
“I met so many people who work in the field.
Someone from every radio station, from every
network was there.”
Marlena was also presented with her scholarship
at the conference.
“There was a banquet dinner that was really
fancy and nice,” Marlena said. “They called
me up and read my biography, then gave me
my award.
“[This year] has been wonderful. My
senior year has been full of opportunities
and it’s been very rewarding,” Marlena said.
“The hard work that [I] have put into my
academics and scholarship is being recognized
and it feels really good.”
Now that she is graduating, Marlena plans
to continue to work toward her goal of becoming
a professional news anchor.
“I plan on continuing anchoring, and over
the summer putting together a really good
demo tape and work hard on trying to find
a job.”
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