by Katie Dettman

Graduate Student

The Lokey Scholarship was established in 2007 through the generosity of philanthropist Lorey I. Lokey, founder of Business Wire, an international media relations company. Lokey, who helped make possible the SOJC’s George S. Turnbull Portland Center, is a 1949 Stanford University graduate and a University of Oregon Foundation trustee.

The scholarship awards $10,000 to each student. The Lokey Scholarship program was established in 2008 and Sirois, Gracon and Shelton were the second group of students to receive the award.  

The scholarship program provides support to raise the national and international profile of the SOJC, attract the best and brightest young minds to the UO, and be a catalyst for developing outstanding future leaders for the journalism and communication industry.

Bonnie Shelton, who will be graduating from the SOJC in the fall (two terms early), is an Electronic Media major originally from Tigard, Oregon, and is currently completing a high-intensity internship in the Investigative Unit at CBS News in New York. 

“I would tell you what stories I’m working on,” she shares, “but it’s top secret!”

On winning the award, she says, “It means a great deal. This award and the scholarship that accompanies it will help me to continue my education without having to worry about finances. Because I have a twin sister who also attends UO, this scholarship is such a blessing to my parents who are helping us through college. I am so honored and humbled to be chosen to receive this award and am proud to represent the wonderful faculty and staff who have helped me to get to this point.” She plans on working in broadcast news upon graduating.

Sirois says he was unaware he had won the Lokey Scholarship until the day of the awards ceremony. He received text messages from a student and his advisor, Janet Wasko, during the ceremony, telling him he had won the award, and asking where he was.

“So, I rolled over on my motorbike feeling sort of stupid knowing that I missed the award's presentation,” he shares. “I did catch the last 20 minutes of the ceremony.”

Originally from Maine, Sirois is a popular Disc Jockey in Eugene (“DJ Foodstamp”) as well as a teacher and student. On winning the scholarship, he says, “It’s a great honor. Since I've been here I have spent all my time on schoolwork, teaching work, or DJ work. Not one vacation or weekend getaway. To know that those sacrifices have paid off, that those sacrifices are being noticed and respected, is a great honor. It also signals that I'm headed in the right direction with my teaching and scholarship.” After graduating, he plans to finally go on a honeymoon with his wife.

Gracon is originally from Hamburg, New York (a suburb of Buffalo), and worked as an adjunct professor and media professional in western New York before coming to the SOJC in the fall of 2006.

Winning the scholarship “means a lot, especially as grad school life can be rather isolating, and you spend all this time writing and reading alone, and sometimes I don't know where this is all going,” he says. “So for someone to recognize that I've been working really hard really validates this whole experience. It means a lot for my family as well, as neither of my parents went to college. It makes them proud and reinforces all the time and effort that goes into getting a PhD in a very positive way. That is rewarding to me.”

This summer, Gracon is teaching Communication Theory and Criticism and setting up field locations and interviews for his dissertation on independent record stores and the music industry.

“I really enjoy teaching, and I put a lot of energy into making this class run smoothly,” he shares.

He is also working diligently on promoting a project called Tuff Stuff from the Buff (http://tuffstuffbuff.wordpress.com), a collection of “underground and defiantly independent videos” about Buffalo. He and his co-creator are spending time this summer traveling by bicycle throughout the Northwest to promote the collection.

"The Lokey scholarship provides an amazing opportunity to reward and support the doctoral candidates in our program who have demonstrated exceptional achievements in their research specializations,” says SOJC Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research Leslie Steeves.  “In addition to recognizing and encouraging our promising student scholars, we hope the scholarship will help our doctoral program earn more  national visibility and recruit new students with the potential to also win Lokey scholarships and go on to do great things in the field."