Jay Kennedy Scholarship deadline announced for 2010

The National Cartoonists Society Foundation has announced the deadline for the Jay Kennedy Scholarship for the best college cartoonist. Students in North America (Mexico, U.S., Canada) are eligible. Entries and samples must be postmarked by February 6, 2010. The winner is treated to the annual National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards weekend. Visit the NCSF website for more details.

The annual Jay Kennedy Scholarship, in memory of the late King Features editor, was funded by an initial $100,000 grant from the Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate and additional generous donations from Jerry Scott, Jim Borgman, Patrick McDonnell and many other prominent cartoonists. Submissions are adjudicated by a panel of top cartoonists and an award is given to the best college cartoonist. The recipient is feted at the annual NCS Reuben Awards Convention attended by many of the worldâ??s leading cartoonists.

Applicants must be college students in the United States, Canada or Mexico that will be in their Junior or Senior year of college during the 2010-2011 academic year. Applicants do not have to be art majors to be eligible for this scholarship.

Along with a completed entry form, applicants are required to send 8 samples of their own cartooning artwork (copies only); noting if and where the work has been published, either in print or on the web. (See application for details.) DO NOT send original artwork.

22 thoughts on “Jay Kennedy Scholarship deadline announced for 2010

  1. This scholarship doesn’t say anything about room an board. Is the NCS saying that only rich-would-be-cartoonists, or cartoonists willing to sleep around and treat women as props for free room and board, need apply?

    Gross!

    Hope none of these kids have warts.

  2. Not cool, Scott. We all know you have an axe to grind with the NCS, but this is just plain bad form — beyond disrespectful.

    Making fun of a scholarship dedicated to the memory of someone isn’t funny at all … You’re totally missing the point of the award.

  3. Since the scholarship is paid to the recipient in the form of a check for good old hard American currency I presume said recipient can spend it on tuition, room and board, jello shots, Metallica tickets, prostitutes or whatever strikes their fancy as they see fit. They could even spend it on books and merchandise bearing images from their favorite web comic! See, everybody wins!

  4. Oh, guys. No. I think it’s great. I was just attempting some humor here. My comment was a call back to Ted Rall’s ranting about the webcomics scholarship story a couple weeks back.

    Sorry. I was being sarcastic here. I think the scholarship is great. I’m for it. Seriously.

    My comment was specifically for people who remember that comment thread and have read Ted’s book about the year he banged women so he wouldn’t have to get a job.

  5. I didn’t follow that particular discussion, Scott, nor read Ted Rall’s book. Without such specific context, your original comment just seems so unwarranted.

    But hey, I know I’ve regretted and apologized for making particular comments here in the past, so I’ll leave it at that.

  6. No worries, Mike. I’m not mad. I get’cha!

    I think the scholarship is awesome and I’m glad that it’s there in Jay’s name. They did a similar thing at SCAD in Mike Wieringo’s name. And I think they’re setting up another in Jeremy Mullins’ name (Jeremy was a SCAD prof who died this year tragically).

    Just wanted to clarify so you understood I was being silly and not actually crapping on Jay, the NCS or the scholarship.

  7. I think everyone’s missing the important part of this thread: how does that “banging so you don’t have to get a job” thing work exactly?

    Best of luck to the applicants, surely many future stars among them.

  8. How much is this scholarship worth? If one webcomic can fund a scholarship of $10 000/year with plans to expand to five awards per year I would expect the NCS to be able to hand out a significantly higher value to even more deserving winners.

  9. Oh! no wonder I’m not banging any women–I have a job! I gotta reverse this process somehow.

  10. @Greg Smith:

    What do you mean “If one webcomic can fund a scholarship…”?

    Wasn’t Scott referring to the Savannah College of Art & Design, not a webcomic? The Wieringo scholarship there is $1100, not $10,000.

    Scholarships like that are usually set up as an endowment where only the interest from the donation is used to fund whatever the purpose is. The NCSF gave lump sum awards worth $50,000 to a couple of art schools and the yearly scholarship is funded through interest on endowments made by benefactors (the major one being King Features Syndicate) strictly for scholarship usage. That generates enough to give a cash award to the winner and pay for their attendance at the Reuben weekend.

    The NCSF receives other donations that are earmarked for other uses that can’t be mingled with scholarships. The foundation money is compartmentalized when it comes to use…troop visits, indigent/hardship payments, scholarships, and other projects. Not all the money in the foundation is available for scholarships.

    Colleges and Universities have a very broad base of resources for such things. There are many more alumni of any college than there are members of the NCS. Therefore, they have a lot larger pool of possible donations to fund individual scholarships.

  11. Greg, sorry, I thought you were referring to Scott’s comment about the SCAD scholarships. I hadn’t seen the story about the webcomic scholarship, but have now. Impressive that they can do that. I’m guessing they’re basing that on a certain assumption of growth of their feature to pay for that. Scholarships based on endowments are by nature not allowed to touch the principal amount, just the interest. A private plan like this sounds like they’re just doing this off their profit line each year, not funded upfront like an endowment. Very different things.

  12. I’m trying to come up with a football analogy for the rampant mis-communication in this comment thread. Something about missing a pass but running anyway with an imaginary ball.

  13. “Gee, I wonder how any women reading this thread feel?”

    This is a forum for cartoonists. No women will be reading anything here.

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