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Phillips Foundation Announces Year 2001 Journalism Fellowships - Two $50,000 Gold Awards And Two $25,000 Silver Awards

POTOMAC, Md., May 9, 2001 -- The Phillips Foundation today announced the winners of its eighth annual journalism fellowship awards. Catherine Edwards, a reporter for Insight magazine, and Naomi Schaefer, assistant editor with Commentary magazine, captured the two $50,000 Gold Awards. Tony Mecia, a staff writer at The Charlotte Observer, and Pamela Winnick, a staff writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, won the two $25,000 Silver Awards. The winners will begin their one-year fellowships this summer. 

The fellowship winners were introduced during an awards dinner last night at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Paul Gigot, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Wall Street Journal, served as guest speaker, and The Phillips Foundation presented its 2001 Lifetime Achievement Award to noted syndicated columnist James J. Kilpatrick at the dinner. 

For her fellowship project, Edwards, 27, will explore the spread of Wicca among young women in America. Her project title is: "Out of the Broom Closet: Wicca and Goddess Worship's Influence on America's Young People." Schaefer, 24, will devote her fellowship to an examination of the recent increase in enrollment at religion-based colleges and universities when there is a growing hostility toward students of faith at many secular public and private institutions. Her project is titled: "Combining Faith and Reason: The Revival of Religious Higher Education in America." 

For his part-time fellowship, Mecia, 29, will study "The Impact of Anti-Sprawl Policies on America's Cities." He plans to focus on the "smart growth" movement and the effects of "smart growth" policies on cities across the nation. Winnick, 49, will conduct an "Examination of How Media and Established Scientists Treat the Subject of Evolution," analyzing why there seems to be little tolerance for the teaching of creationism in America. 

The Phillips Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1990 to advance the cause of objective journalism. The Foundation established its journalism fellowship program in 1994 to provide annual grants for journalism projects supportive of American culture and a free society. The fellowship program is open to working print journalists with less than five years of professional experience. 

The Trustees of the Phillips Foundation serve as judges for the competition. The Trustees are: Thomas L. Phillips, President of Phillips International, Inc.; Robert D. Novak, prominent national journalist and author of one of the longest running syndicated columns in the country; Alfred S. Regnery, a Washington attorney and President of Regnery Publishing, Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based book publishing firm; Donald P. Hodel, Managing Director of Summit Energy Group and former Secretary of both Interior and Energy during the Reagan Administration; and Thomas A. Fuentes, Senior Vice President of Tait & Associates in Orange County, Calif.