The Asian American Journalists Association, Los Angeles Chapter, is happy to announce the award recipients for its 2016 scholarship competition. The awards total $15,000, with six scholarship winners from around Southern California. The applicants were asked to submit a resume, an official school transcript, two letters of recommendation, a short essay, and work samples.

Students were selected on the basis of their commitment to the field of journalism, sensitivity to Asian American and Pacific Islander issues, journalistic ability, scholastic ability, and financial need.

This year’s judges were Hetty Chang, a reporter for NBC Southern California and a past fellowship recipient; Henry Fuhrmann, a retired longtime editor at the Los Angeles Times; Connie Ho, digital content coordinator at Westways magazine; Sonali Kohli, a reporter at the Los Angeles Times and a former AAJA scholarship winner; Samantha Masunaga, a reporter at the Los Angeles Times and a former AAJA scholarship winner; and Traci Tamura, a senior producer with CNN. Connie and Henry co-chaired the selection committee.

Here are this year’s honorees:

Lauren Day, University of Southern California
$2,500 AAJA Sam Chu Lin Memorial Scholarship

Linda Ha, University of California, Irvine
$2,500 AAJA Peter Imamura Memorial Scholarship

Heidi Carreon, University of Southern California
$2,500 AAJA Los Angeles Chapter Scholarship

Leandra Ito, California State University, Northridge
$2,500 AAJA Los Angeles Chapter Scholarship

Aditi Mayer, University of California, Irvine
$2,500 AAJA Los Angeles Chapter Scholarship

Linda Wang, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Southern California
$2,500 AAJA Los Angeles Chapter Scholarship

Photo: Linda Ha not pictured