An alumni group from the New York School of Printing (NYSP) has made a $62,000 gift to the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism to support a paid media internship each summer for a deserving student.
The money from the Press Club Alumni Association will be used to establish the Benjamin and Mildred Greenwald Journalism Internship Fund, named for the group’s beloved mentor and his wife. Greenwald, who had degrees in English, medieval literature, and comparative linguistics from NYU and Columbia, spent 36 years at the NYSP before retiring in 1976. He was credited with launching the nation’s first high school journalism major. After his retirement until his death in February 1986, Greenwald continued as a consultant to the journalism program at the NYSP, renamed the High School of Graphic Communication Arts in the early 1980s, as well as an adviser to the Press Club Alumni Association.
The Greenwald fund will pay a stipend of at least $3,000 a year to a CUNY J-School student who graduated from a New York City public high school or a City University of New York college.
As part of the J-School’s curriculum, all students are required to work in a full-time journalism internship during the summer between their second and third semesters. The gift from the NYSP alumni will help the School meet its guarantee that every student intern will receive a minimum of $3,000. Unique to the CUNY J-School, the paid internship program helps students support themselves while getting valuable professional experience.