Paperwork signed for Leabo scholarship

After careful discussion and consultation with the Leabo family, FJSA has finalized an agreement with the Texas A&M Foundation and Student Media to administer the C.J. "Skip" Leabo scholarship each year to a deserving student filling a position of responsibility at the Battalion. Whoop!

The new parts of this are:

• The Foundation officially handling the money now, which is much better for all involved and the way we wanted it to work from the get-go -- just took a while to set up. Now folks can donate straight to the Foundation (details here) and it's all tax-deductible. Simple and clean. FJSA treasurer Jerry Cooper has done a lot of work in getting this set up right and in handling the donations that've already come in.
  
• The scholarship going to a Batt student. Many Aggie journalists out in the field now got crucial practical experience working at the Batt, and Kathleen Leabo says that Skip enjoyed working with the students there. The Leabo family wants the scholarship to go to a student who is "serious about learning the craft" of journalism. Bob Wegener, as head of Student Media, has agreed to take on the work of awarding this scholarship and I'm both grateful to him and very confident that he knows the type of student being sought.

Several years ago, FJSA successfully got a scholarship endowed honoring Bob Rogers which is awarded every year to a journalism minor. We are looking forward to the day when we can start handing out Leabo scholarships too.

Our goal is to raise $25,000 within five years to endow this scholarship. We are exactly one-tenth of the way there already, with $2,500!