Atlanta, GA– The Georgia Association of Broadcasters is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2019 E. Lanier Finch Scholarship.
Yash Bhika
Doria Lacey
Carrington Lewis
Skylar Nicholson
Tylar Norman
The E. Lanier Finch Scholarship was created by the Georgia Association of Broadcasters to recognize the late Lanny Finch, President Emeritus for his outstanding leadership, dedication, and numerous contributions to the continued success of the organization. Therefore, the scholarship program was reestablished in 2005 to benefit both member stations and students. Every year the GAB awards up to five journalism students scholarships in the amount of $1,500. This year’s donation will bring the GAB’s overall scholarship contributions to $91,500 since 2006.
Each student will be awarded their scholarship at the GAB’s annual Hall of Fame Luncheon in Athens, Georgia on January 29th. For more information or to purchase tickets to this event, click HERE.
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Yash Bhika
Yash Bhika is a senior journalism major at the University of Georgia. He can remember watching a Premier League soccer game when he was a senior in high school and hearing one of his favorite commentators, Arlo White, call the game for NBCSN. Yash recalls that hearing his voice made the game better and it built up the atmosphere that no other announcer could. Yash knew from then that he wanted to use his voice to impact others and create content that people could relate to and be inspired by. Yash knew that when he started school at the Universit of Georgia, that he wanted to find opportunities where he could use my voice. Yash joined WUOG, the local radio station in Athens where he hosted and produced a sports show with four other people. It gave Yash his first taste of talking on the radio, and helped him to establish his voice. In his junior year, Yash took the initiative of starting his own podcast called, The Premier Pod. It’s a podcast that covers everything about his favorite soccer league, the Premier League. Making weekly episodes, and learning the ins and outs of the podcasting industry has helped Yash on delivering content to others. He knew that because he wasn’t a former player, he shouldn’t focus on the x’s and o’s. Instead, he should provide more opinionated responses to the biggest storylines affecting the league. Yash says It’s an honor to be named a recipient of the Lanier Finch Scholarship, and he will continue to strive forward in my career in journalism because of it.
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Doria Lacey
Doria Lacey is a senior Communications major at Columbus State University. She is the Program Manager at her college station, 88.5FM WCUG Cougar Radio. She is in charge of all of WCUG’s programming, coaching on-air personalities, and has even been able to interview some of her favorite artists. Doria also has a freelance job with Radio One, and volunteers with Davis Broadcasting in her free time. Doria plans to use the E. Lanier Finch Scholarship to help her obtain her Masters in Communication from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School.
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Carrington Lewis
Carrington Lewis is a junior, Mass Media major. She currently works as an assistant hall director for Lowndes Hall at Valdosta State University. She is an aspiring technical director and video production, enthusiast. Cartington has worked with broadcasting and video production equipment for four years. She has earned certification in Social Media Marketing via Hubspot.com, and Adobe Premiere Pro via Adobe.com. During her 3 years at Valdosta State University, she has directed, edited, and written several video productions. This past December, Carrington directed her own original film, SuperRichKids, which was shown in Valdosta Stadium Theater.
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Skylar Nicholson
Skylar Nicholson, a senior at the University of Georgia, is a double major studying Journalism and Political Science. Her focus is on multimedia political journalism with specialties in on-air reporting, editing, and production. Nicholson completed an internship in Washington, D.C. this past summer with Newsy (Scripps) where she covered politics on Capitol Hill. She has completed additional internships with CNN, The Grammy Foundation, Georgia Public Broadcasting and this spring semester will be an intern with the Peabody Awards. Nicholson has been working part-time with Georgia Public Broadcasting since her senior year of high school on a variety of shows including Lawmakers, A Seat at the Table and Football Fridays. Her passion is rooted in telling honest, impactful stories to seek social engagement and positive change.
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Tylar Norman
Tylar Norman is a third-year student at the University of Georgia pursuing a degree in Journalism with a minor in Spanish and a Sports Media certificate. She knew she wanted to be a journalist ever since she was 16 when her dad took her on a tour of the CNN center in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. She remembers sitting behind the reporter’s desk and read off the teleprompter as she spoke into the camera. She believes that the confidence to articulately and accurately report on the world around her came naturally. Tylar wants to be a sports journalist because sports is what she is passionate about. She grew up dabbling her foot in gymnastics, competitive cheer and tennis but knew she was not destined to be the next Serena Williams or Simone Biles. Her purpose is to go and tell the stories that are bigger than their stats or what you see at a meet. One day, she hopes to be a broadcaster or work in the communications department for a sports team or network. On-campus, Tylar serves on the executive boards for the National Association of Black Journalists, the Association for Women in Sports Media, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Outside of her studies and experiences at UGA, she has her own youtube channel where she discusses hair health and beauty for African American women, she runs her own photography business and she recently started writing for Peach State College Sports about UGA Athletics.
