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WJA Foundation Names First Winner of Hedda Schupak Scholarship
Journalist Priya Raj plans to use the scholarship funds to further her media qualifications and amplify marginalized communities.
U.K.-based freelance journalist Priya Raj is the winner of the inaugural Hedda Schupak-Baum Memorial Media and Communications Scholarship from the Women’s Jewelry Association Foundation.
New York—The Women’s Jewelry Association Foundation has announced Priya Raj as the winner of the inaugural Hedda Schupak-Baum Memorial Media and Communications Scholarship.
The scholarship, funded for $25,000 over a five-year period, was created in honor of the late Hedda Schupak, a journalist who dedicated her career to covering the jewelry industry.
Schupak spent 23 years at JCK magazine, working her way up to become editor-in-chief. She later took over as editor of The Centurion newsletter before “semi-retiring” in March 2022.
The scholarship that bears her name aims to support aspiring journalists, media professionals, content creators, and communicators.
Raj, the first winner of the award, is a journalist and content strategist from the United Kingdom.
She currently is a digital content lead at Chelsea Magazines Company and has contributed to multiple fine jewelry and watch publications, including creating content for the BBC, Refinery29, and InStyle.
She has also attended numerous local and global jewelry events.
Raj told National Jeweler via email that she plans to use the scholarship funds to further her media qualifications and aims to amplify marginalized communities in the jewelry and watch industry.
“I am honored and humbled to have received the first Hedda Schupak-Baum Memorial Media and Communications Scholarship,” she said in WJA’s LinkedIn announcement of the scholarship winner last month.
“Receiving this scholarship marks not only a milestone in my career, but also the shifting sands of our industry. I look forward to undertaking the responsibility of amplifying the untold stories of the industry.”
Related stories will be right here …
The scholarship, funded for $25,000 over a five-year period, was created in honor of the late Hedda Schupak, a journalist who dedicated her career to covering the jewelry industry.
Schupak spent 23 years at JCK magazine, working her way up to become editor-in-chief. She later took over as editor of The Centurion newsletter before “semi-retiring” in March 2022.
The scholarship that bears her name aims to support aspiring journalists, media professionals, content creators, and communicators.
Raj, the first winner of the award, is a journalist and content strategist from the United Kingdom.
She currently is a digital content lead at Chelsea Magazines Company and has contributed to multiple fine jewelry and watch publications, including creating content for the BBC, Refinery29, and InStyle.
She has also attended numerous local and global jewelry events.
Raj told National Jeweler via email that she plans to use the scholarship funds to further her media qualifications and aims to amplify marginalized communities in the jewelry and watch industry.
“I am honored and humbled to have received the first Hedda Schupak-Baum Memorial Media and Communications Scholarship,” she said in WJA’s LinkedIn announcement of the scholarship winner last month.
“Receiving this scholarship marks not only a milestone in my career, but also the shifting sands of our industry. I look forward to undertaking the responsibility of amplifying the untold stories of the industry.”
Hedda’s husband Jim Baum said he is “thrilled” that Raj is the first recipient of the Hedda Schupak scholarship.
“Hedda, from her earliest days at JCK, was an advocate for women and how women should play a larger leadership role in the jewelry industry,” Baum said in a release from WJA.
“She understood the influence that responsible journalists could have and did her part to make sure that everyone with a stake in the jewelry business was heard. The [scholarship] helps to ensure that Hedda’s ideals will be passed on to a new generation of jewelry industry influencers.”
A small committee worked together to establish the Hedda Schupak-Baum Memorial Media and Communications Scholarship earlier this year.
It was funded by: Baum, Mitchell and Leslie Horowitz, Howard and Patti Hauben, Elias World Media, JCK, InStore, Cliq Jewelry, Jewelers of America, National Jeweler, FIT Alumni Association, Jewelers Collective, Russell Shor, Bill Boyajian, and Jewelry by Karla Kristine.
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