The ACES Education Fund has awarded nearly $10,000 in scholarships to five college students whose editing experience already covers a vast range of media.
The Education Fund awards ACES Scholarships annually to students who excel in critical thinking about written materials in any field and aspire to a career involving editing. Graduate students and college juniors and seniors are eligible to apply.
In addition to the ACES Scholarships, the ACES Education Fund has awarded its 2023-24 Bill Walsh Scholarship for excellence in the editing of news to Russell Leung of Northwestern University.
The Education Fun supports the future of editing. To win an ACES Scholarship is not only an honor in the editing community, it often provides crucial financial support to the recipients.
Meet the winners
Three of this year’s winners are undergraduates and two are graduate students, all with extensive skills and editing experience. They are located across the country.
One of the five ACES Scholarship recipients is chosen for the award named after Merv Aubespin, a long-time editor at the Courier-Journal and pivotal voice behind the formation of ACES: The Society for Editing, in the late 1990s.
Naisha Roy is this year’s Aubespin Scholar, winning $2,500. She is working on a bachelor’s degree in journalism, Spanish, and linguistics at New York University and has an interest in understanding and addressing bias in media. Roy is currently NYU Madrid’s editorial representative, where she manages the newspaper’s print and digital content. She is also deputy managing editor of NYU’s independent student-run newspaper, Washington Square News.
The other four students, each receiving a $1,500 scholarship, are:
Maya Steinberg, who is studying gender and women’s studies and Mexican American studies at W.A. Franke Honors College at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She was recently recognized with two other honors. She was selected as a scholar by the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program, which prepares undergraduate students for doctoral studies. Steinberg has also been named a Fronteridades intern, a program of the University of Arizona’s Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry, which is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Apurva Mahajan, an undergraduate majoring in journalism and government/politics major at the University of Maryland in College Park. He also works at a student newspaper, The Diamondback, where he has worked his way from copy editor to managing editor. Apurva has also interned at Aviation Week in Washington, D.C.
Alyssa Dearborn, a graduate student at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in the professional studies program. She is a freelance editor and writer who has contributed to Eagle Newspapers and the Syracuse Woman Magazine. Alyssa is focused professionally on becoming an editor at a press that amplifies diverse voices.
Emily Barske Wood is pursuing a master’s degree in narrative nonfiction at the University of Georgia. She is currently special projects editor at the Des Moines Business Record weekly newspaper. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wood led the newsroom’s print publications, digital products, and events. She was previously a part-time member of the NPR Public Editor team. Wood holds a BS in journalism, mass communications, and marketing from Iowa State University.
More Education Fund news
The ACES Education Fund has given over $100,000 since 1999, raised entirely through individual donations, to nearly 150 recipients. Learn more about previous winners Steven Vargas, 2020-21 ACES Scholar from USC; and Audrey Kuo, Aubespin Scholar, 2008-09, from UCLA. In addition to a cash award, each scholarship also includes financial aid to attend one of the two annual ACES conferences, in-person or virtual.
Applications for the six 2024–25 ACES Scholarships, including the Walsh Scholarship, open in the summer. The deadline is November 15 and the awards are announced early the following year.
"ACES Awards Walsh Scholarship to Northwestern’s Russell Leung"
Learn More about the Aces education fund
Support the future of editing: Give to the ACES education fund
The ACES Education Fund
The ACES Education Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and its predecessor have awarded nearly 150 scholarships since 1999 to students who have a passion for editing. The ACES Education Fund is run entirely by volunteers and all awards come from individual donations.
ACES: The Society for Editing
ACES: The Society for Editing is the nation’s leading organization of editing professionals, educators, and students. Founded in 1997 by copy editors, ACES is dedicated to improving the quality of the written word and the working lives of editors. It sets standards of excellence and gives a voice to editors in journalism, government, business, publishing, and beyond through top-notch training, networking, and career opportunities. ACES hosts an annual in-person conference and, since 2022, an annual virtual conference. ACES Academy hosts monthly webinars. ACES also offers certificates in editing, which it co-hosts with The Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalism.
