Written by On Monday, December 13, 2011, The Pennsylvania School Press Association surprised Dr. Jane Blystone at Mercyhurst College with the announcement that the student journalism group renamed a scholarship in her honor. The PSPA Student Journalist of the Year award will now be known as the Jane Blystone Pennsylvania School Press Association Scholarship Award for Pennsylvania’s Student Journalist of the Year.
Dr. Blystone, Mr. Hankes, and award
PSPA renamed its scholarship a month after Dr. Blystone stepped down from the position as Association President and formally retired from PSPA. Her resignation ends twenty-eight years of passionately serving Pennsylvania student journalists and their advisers.
See Dr. Blystone receive the award at YourErie.com
The new award was unveiled yesterday in Erie at a Mercyhurst College Education Department meeting. Robert Hankes, Big Spring High School English Teacher and current president of PSPA, with the help of many people at Mercyhurst, surprised Dr. Blystone with the announcement. Attending were Mercyhurst Education Professors Kathleen Bukowski, Jonathan Ivy, Alex Karns, Thomas Kitchen, Susan Johnson, Timothy Frawley, and Irene Boyles, and Department Head Leanne Roberts. In November the PSPA Board of Directors voted unanimously to change the name of the award, citing Jane’s endless diligence working with the student journalists of Pennsylvania.
Each year the JEA State Director initiates a search for the best student journalist in Pennsylvania. PSPA Board Members, student journalist experts and career journalists scrutinize the entries, then make a recommendation to PSPA and JEA. The student nominated then receives the Blystone Award and a five hundred dollar scholarship. The first Blystone award will be offered this Spring.
Dr. Blystone has taught in the Education Program at Mercyhurst since 2007. She has been an active member of The Journalism Education Association for many years, and currently is Northeastern United States Director of JEA. For many years Jane taught and advised publications at North East High School in Erie.
Mr. Hankes returns to lead PSPA after resigning from PSPA’s president post last year due to an extended illness. He was re-elected in November and will serve a three-year term.
In 2012, PSPA will turn eighty-five years old. It’s best known for its PSPA Summer Evaluation of student publications and annual journalism conference in Harrisburg.
