Student Beatrice Katcher (’15) named AP-Google Scholar

Katcher is one of two students to win the national AP-Google Scholarship, which rewards students for creating innovative projects at the intersection of new media and journalism. She plans to develop a web and mobile app that will enable children to engage with journalism, as both community news producers and consumers. The app will give children a way to interact with the news, and in doing so it will seek to get more young people interested in journalism.

“My application will deliver news using a visual-centric and mobile-friendly platform on which text can be combined with photos, videos, illustrations, animations and infographics “Ó the kinds of visual content that has made services like Instagram and SnapChat so popular,” wrote Katcher.

“We are very proud of Beatrice,” said J-School digital media lecturer Jeremy Rue. “Her desire to excite young people about news runs at the very core of what journalism is about. We are happy the AP-Google selection committee saw the passion in her application. Her penchant for using technology to communicate news is a positive quality “Ó for any journalist in this age.”

The AP-Google scholarship program, which is administered by the Online News Association, provides $7,500 scholarships to students who produce innovative projects that further the ideals of digital journalism. The scholarship program was launched in 2011, and Berkeley J-School students have won the award every subsequent year, with John Osborn (’13) winning in 2012 and Erik Reyna (’14) winning in 2013. No other journalism program has matched that success.