The National Court Reporters Foundation announced two recipients for the 2021 New Professional Reporter Grant.
“In our goals to support tomorrow’s leaders, our Foundation provides a new reporter grant every year for $2,000,” said NCRF Chair Early Langley, RMR, of Danville, Calif. “Starting in 2020, we added a second-place award for $1,000 for another new reporter. We are so proud to provide these two deserving applicants, Sawyer Cox and Jennifer Gale, with this year’s first- and second-place New Professional Reporter Grants.”
Sawyer Cox from Vista, Calif., said thank you in this video.
“Thank you so much to the National Court Reporters Foundation and its members for this generous $2,000 award,” Cox said. “I am extremely honored and grateful to be selected for this grant, which will help me tremendously in buying new equipment and supplies. Thank you again to the Foundation for making this possible. I am extremely happy with the choice I made of becoming a court reporter, and I cannot wait for the many opportunities this job will bring me in the future.”
Second-place awardee Jennifer Gale from Pittsburgh, Pa., said, “Thank you for generously awarding me with the second-place position for the New Professional Reporter Grant. I feel incredibly elated and deeply grateful to have been selected as the additional recipient.”
Gale graduated from the NCRA-approved Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh, Pa., in the fall of 2019. “I had been originally attending classes in person, but when the community began to quarantine, everything shifted online,” she said. “My entire internship class took place virtually with me shadowing local court reporters over Zoom. A year has gone by, and I still am learning something new every day about what it means to be a freelance court reporter.”
Her decision to become a court reporter started out of her desire to uphold “the integrity of the judicial system, preserving history, and finding personal pride in being an entrusted keeper of record. I am honored to have finally joined the ranks of said guardians of the record,” she said.
“By awarding me the New Professional Reporter Grant, you have lightened my financial burden in regard to purchasing appropriate technology for more efficient remote depositions,” Gale said, noting this is needed especially during a pandemic. “Having access to funds for better equipment will help me be a more well-rounded, professional, reliable court reporter in the long run. Thanks to [NCRF], I am one step closer to achieving my goal of being a well-prepared, phenomenal court reporter.”
Gale said winning this grant has inspired her to want to give back in the future.
“I look forward to the day when I will be able to help new reporters achieve their goals just as you have helped me.” Gale said.
For information about the National Court Reporters Foundation grants and scholarships, email NCRF Manager Jill Parker Landsman at jlandsman@ncra.org.
