By JOSH DAWSEY, University of South Carolina, David J. Morrow Scholarship recipient
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Winning any scholarship is welcomed news when you’re a college student whose salary at the campus newspaper is well below minimum wage.
Winning the inaugural scholarship named for David Morrow — an accomplished journalist from my home state who accomplished more in 49 years than most ever will — means much more than a financial aid check.
I’m Josh Dawsey, a rising senior at the University of South Carolina whose start in journalism was rather inauspicious. I wrote for a small community newspaper whose office in a town of 700 was a renovated barbershop. There were still shreds of hair found on the floor, and an occasional passerby meandered in for a haircut we were not qualified to provide.
At that point, I was probably a better hairdresser than I was a journalist.
Four years, three internships, dozens of talented editors and plenty of late nights later, I’m an intern at Fortune magazine and an editor-in-chief at the only daily collegiate newspaper in South Carolina. Along the way, I’ve written about higher education, bankruptcies, high school sports, tourism, gubernatorial races, corruption, fires, sea turtles, bed races, shark fishing and even civil rights.
I’ve learned two things about myself. Well, three, if you count the fact a police scanner will always beep right as you’re walking out the door, tempting you to run for the parking lot but inevitably forcing you to return.
One, few topics are as interesting as business journalism, and even fewer matter as much as business journalism.
And more importantly, my desire to be a journalist is deeper than ever. Naysayers have discouraged me from journalism — it’s dying, they say. Law school would be a better option.
I don’t believe it.
Others have encouraged me to consider public relations or corporate communications — the hours and pay are better, they say. Whatever.
Sure, journalism is difficult work for little pay and lots of angry web comments. It also has the ability to rid corruption, comfort the afflicted, influence dialogue and, to use a cliché, change the world.
A vibrant and free press full of talented, knowledgeable reporters is as instrumental to society as Congress is to our democracy. In fact, journalism often accomplishes a lot more.
From what I’ve heard, David Morrow believed those things, too. He was an agent of change, a reporter who cut through the spin, an editor who developed immense talent, an innovator who changed the industry and an educator who left journalism much better than he found it.
His wit was unparalleled; his friends numbered in the hundreds.
I only wish I could express my gratitude to him, but I hope my continued work leaves this society and his friends and family proud.
Josh Dawsey, a senior at the University of South Carolina, received the first David J. Morrow Scholarship from a fund established by his university and SABEW. This summer Josh is a paid intern at Fortune magazine in New York City. In the fall he will return to Columbia, S.C., as editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, The Daily Gamecock.
David Morrow (left) was a SABEW board member and longtime financial journalist who worked for TheStreet.com and other companies. He was a Donald W. Reynolds business journalism professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, at the time of his death in January 2010.
