The impact of the OPC’s Flint scholarship

Jerry Flint

Kate McLeod of The Overseas Press Club writes about the Jerry Flint Scholarship, named after a legendary automotive journalist, and its impact.

McLeod writes, “An entry by a Columbia Journalism School graduate student, Valerie Hopkins, is chosen as the 2013 Jerry Flint Scholarship winner. With her scholarship, Val worked for the Financial Times and subsequently joined The New York Times in May 2021. The Times posted Hopkins in Moscow and when the war broke out, she was there to cover it reporting from both Russia and Ukraine. In addition to several Page 1 stories, on Dec. 5, 2022, Hopkins posted a Page 1 story with co-writer Anatoly Kurmanaev citing how the war’s sanctions were undercutting the Russian economy, with a focus on the auto industry. Full circle.

“Flint never would have believed a scholarship in his name would produce so many fine journalists. McLeod can just hear him saying, ‘Who would donate money in my name?’ We have just named the 13th winner of the scholarship. Most of the winners are in key places around the world.

“‘It is what it should be for Jerry,’ McLeod says. ‘Some of his final words to his readers were, ‘I will try to never let you down.’ I think his legacy is alive and well. And it has come full circle with Valerie writing a story about the Russian auto industry.'”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.