SCHOLARSHIPS
$1,500 EMMY® STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS

Let The Upper Midwest Emmy® Foundation help you pay for some of your tuition & books for college.

We offer $1,500 scholarship grants to students planning to major in journalism, broadcasting or electronic media at an accredited post-secondary educational institution.

We’d like to thank 2025 Scholarship Sponsors Beaurline, Carlini & Fransen Families. Deadline for scholarship applications is Friday, February 3rd, 2025.

The NATAS-Upper Midwest Foundation offers $1,500 student scholarship grants to be used for tuition & books.  We even pay the school directly so you don’t have to claim it as income for taxes!

Scholarships are open to high school seniors and college/university sophomores & juniors or graduate students living or attending school in the five-state area served by the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences:

REQUIREMENTS
  1. Be accepted into an accredited post-secondary school.
  2. Submit completed online scholarship grant application form.
  3. Each scholarship requires the student to write a mandatory essay for the scholarships offered. Essays will be judged based on your ability to focus on the topic, answer the question and stay within the 450 word limit.  We will also pay attention to spelling and grammar.
  4. College scholarships require an additional Video Link (YouTube, Vimeo, etc) of your best work. Time Limit: 15 minutes.
  5. Submit a copy of your most recent high school/college transcript.
  6. Letter or letters of recommendation from relevant faculty or advisors.  Letters of recommendation can be accepted via email info@midwestemmys.org, providing it comes directly from the faculty or advisor’s school account.  Hard copy letters should be signed and printed on letterhead paper.

Completed application, essay, transcript, video link (if necessary) and letters of recommendation must be completed by February 3rd, 2025.

You may also email materials to info@midwestemmys.org.

Scholarship recipients will be announced in March, 2025
Payments to schools will be made in August, 2025

Apply Now
COLLEGE
BOB FRANSEN LEADERSHIP SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION
COLLEGE
CARLINI MEDIA PRODUCTION SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION
College
BEAURLINE FAMILY FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION
HIGH SCHOOL
EMMY® FOUNDATION HIGH SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION
BOB FRANSEN LEADERSHIP SCHOLARSHIP
2021 RECIPIENT

Madeline Hamilton, or Maddie call her , is from Oskaloosa, Iowa and grew up in the  performing arts programs there. Maddie is a freshman at the University of Northern Iowa where she studies digital journalism and theatre with a performance emphasis.

 

Within the digital journalism and theatre major Maddie enjoys working and discovering new ways to express herself and art forms. Growing up, she discovered VICE journalism and would watch their documentaries through the night. Maddie says her parents saw her passions and pushed her to chase that fire.

 
Recently, Maddie explored and expanded her interests even more through podcasting and DJing at radio stations. She loves this because it supports her ultimate goal of sharing others stories.
 
Additionally, Maddie enjoys creating short films and producing original stories usually, with eerie twists and strong themes.

“I also love having the ability to tell stories that bring awareness to important topics in society. One of my most driven aspirations is creating a voice for more women in the digital media industry. Oftentimes women in the media are looked at in a negative light, but this needs to change. Us women have important things to say, and even better things to show the audience. My hope is to eventually ignite a fire in another preteen watching documentaries at 3am. Ultimately, I hope my work inspires others as much as activism, storytelling, and journalism has inspired me”. - Madeline Hamilton

Madeline Hamilton
University of Northern Iowa
CLASSROOM GRANTS
THE UPPER MIDWEST EMMY® CHAPTER/FOUNDATION SCHOOL GRANT MISSION:

To enhance the learning experience of media students in our chapter region’s high schools and/or 501(c)(3) secondary and post-secondary educational organizations by acquiring and distributing resources related to video production, television, and/or broadcast journalism.

Proposals should match the following criteria:

acowsay Film Company is a proud sponsor of Upper Midwest Emmy® Classroom Grants

Reasons why grant requests will not be approved include:
  • If you have received an Upper Midwest Emmy® Classroom Grant within the past two school years.
  • Upper Midwest Emmy® Foundation grants cannot be used to fund travel expenses of students/staff, teacher stipends, costs of reserve teachers, classroom furniture, or grant requests of less than $500 or more than $2,000.
  • Any proposals, not related to academic achievement in areas of video production, television, and/or broadcast journalism, cannot be funded.
  • If cost per student is exceptionally high and/or the number of students affected is very low, it cannot be funded.
  • If goal of project is unclear or does not have sound plan to measure success, it cannot be funded.
  • If proposal requests purchase of technology or software which cannot be sustained by the school or organization, it cannot be funded. Or, if the proposal requests funds that could be funded by other established sources within the school or organization, it cannot be funded.
  • Should describe materials, equipment, and/or an experience that cannot be purchased through the school or organization’s regular budget process.
  • Have a high probability of significant impact on student achievement and engagement.
  • Fit with the District’s or Organization’s Strategic Plan (if one exists).
  • Have a specific budget and explanation of how the funds will be spent prior August 1st, 2025.
  • Impact a significant number of students and/or impact a small number of students in a significant way over time.
  • Be primarily non-consumable 
APPLICATIONS DUE
FEBRUARY 3rd, 2025
APPLY FOR CLASSROOM GRANT

If you have any questions, or would like to submit a grant, you may e-mail them to info@midwestemmys.org.

Upper Midwest Emmy® Foundation
2021
Classroom Grant Recipient
WITCC Mass Communication Department
Zoom Cart Grant

The WITCC Mass Comm department was started in the fall of 2011, with the first classes for students enrolled in the Audio Engineering degree track. The Video and Media Production degree track was established in the Fall of 2016, and Multimedia Journalism started in the fall of 2018.

Over the last 10 years, WITCC Mass Comm has had great success with students and graduates working as concert technical crew and AV technicians at several venues in the Midwest, as well as Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and Colorado, as well as reporters, news and commercial producers, photographers, directors, audio engineers and production crew at radio and television stations in Northwest and Central Iowa, Southeast South Dakota and Northeast Nebraska.

Our program is grounded in experiential learning – with all curriculum presented in a hands-on environment as realistic as it can be. Students present a daily morning newscast Monday – Thursday and a longer show on Friday. Students have also had a generous amount of real-world experiences including doing election night coverage and producing candidate forums that aired from our studio over the local ABC affiliate, KCAU-TV.


Students recently completed two days of live production on the College’s bi-annual staff development sessions, originating them from our studio with very positive response from the audience of faculty, staff and administration. In addition to speakers and hosts from the studio, 18 pieces of original student work were presented.


Our students are currently in the process of planning the production of several TEDx presentations that will originate from our campus in April of this year, as well as a live music program from the television studio and the production and live streaming of our graduation ceremonies in May.


In a time of social distancing, the program also worked to live stream a “virtual graduation” last spring and also live streamed pinning ceremonies for our Allied Health program, allowing friends and family members to see and recognize the success of their students. Students also have recorded the college’s Law Enforcement graduation for those who were unable to attend.


The faculty, staff, administration and especially the students of the Western Iowa Tech Mass Comm department would like to sincerely thank the Upper Midwest Chapter for their generous classroom grant. We will be using these funds to build a “Zoom Cart” that will facilitate the production of live interviews over Zoom and other streaming conference avenues that will further allow us to emulate how the current broadcast industry has adapted to the challenges of live production during COVID.

STUDENT AV ALL STARS

THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES – UPPER MIDWEST FOUNDATION will recognize students who are an incredible technical asset to the overall success of a school or non-profit educational student video media program.

These are the hardest working, most engaged and active students in the school’s video program or club. The go-to students who help keep you on the air.

Educators may nominate one student from their school or organization’s media program. Students can be Juniors or Seniors and should be behind-the-scenes production personnel. 

Nomination deadline is February 3rd, 2025.

HONOREES

Honorees will be recognized during the 2025 Upper Midwest Emmy® Foundation Student Production Awards ceremony on Friday April 11th, 2025 at the Hilton DoubleTree in Bloomington, MN

NOMINATE A STUDENT AV ALL STAR