Business Journalism News Releases Awards

Missouri Journalism Senior Allison Prang Awarded the $10,000 Donald W. Reynolds Scholarship in Business Journalism

Columbia, Mo. (Sept. 5, 2013) — Allison Prang, a senior at the Missouri School of Journalism, has been awarded the $10,000 Donald W. Reynolds Scholarship in Business Journalism.

Prang said that her interest in business journalism began with her internship on the business news desk at the Kansas City Star in 2012.

Allison Prang
Allison Prang

“This one provided a fantastic introduction to business reporting for a metropolitan area,” Prang said, noting that she was open to any type of newspaper internship at the time.

This internship and relevant class work, combined with the timeliness of all of the news surrounding the financial crisis, furthered her interest in learning more about business reporting. Prang enrolled in a business journalism class taught by Professor Marty Steffens and participated in the hands-on operation at the Missouri Business Alert, supervised by Professor Randall Smith. Steffens is the Society of American Business Editors and Writers Endowed Chair in Business and Financial Journalism; Smith is the Donald W. Reynolds Endowed Chair in Business Journalism.

Prang hopes to have a investigative reporting career in Washington, D.C., and is currently interning at The Wall Street Journal there. She would like to return to Washington next summer to add to her political reporting experience.

“Allison has done an outstanding job in classes, and her strong interest in business journalism makes her exactly the kind of student that the scholarship is intended to encourage,” he said. Smith developed the scholarship program.

The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation provides funding for the scholarship. Headquartered in Las Vegas, it is one of the largest private foundations in the U.S. and has made grants totaling more than $110 million through its National Journalism Initiative.

“The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation helped me afford my experience at not only Mizzou but also my experience interning in Washington, D.C., this semester,” Prang said. “Paying for college has definitely been a challenge, and I am so grateful to the Foundation and to Randy Smith for the scholarship. It has really helped me make this work.”

Updated: July 20, 2020

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