The winners of several National Court Reporters Foundation (NCRF) grants have been announced. The Foundation, as a grant provider, seeks to identify and recognize the next generation of talented court reporters and broadcast and CART captioners.
New Professional Reporter Grant
NCRF Chair Doug Friend, FAPR, RDR, CRR (Ret.), said, “The 2024 NCRF New Professional Reporter Grant netted more applications than it did in each of the previous five years. Four awards were given this year with first place offering $4,000 per winner and $2,000 for each second-place winner. That new funding decision was made by the NCRF Trustees last fall. Congrats to this year’s winners.”
First-place winners:
- Katie Delong of Milwaukee, Wis.
- Lydia Madlem of Charleston, Ill.
Second-place winners:
- Karli Pikala of Minneapolis, Minn.
- Averie Pritchard of Jeannette, Pa.
These 2024 grant winners recognize how fortunate they are to win the now-doubled grants and appreciate the donors and the NCRF Trustees.
“I am shocked and humbled to have been selected to receive NCRF’s New Professional Reporter Grant knowing how tight the competition was,” said first-place winner Katie DeLong. “It is so exciting to know that so many hard-working, deserving new reporters applied. The transition from court reporting student to working reporter is an overwhelming time of transformation and learning, and along with that comes the expense of getting started in this profession.
“I purchased my professional machine, software, and accessories at the beginning of the year when I started working as an official reporter weeks after graduating from court reporting school. I could not be more thankful for the support of NCRA and NCRF in helping new professionals like me offset these expenses. Knowing that I have the support of NCRA, NCRF, and all of the members who donate to fund these grants means everything and motivates me as I push forward in my new career. I sincerely thank the NCRF Board of Trustees for offering this grant and selecting me as one of the first-place winners,” she added.
Appreciative for the chance to share her circumstances and be selected as the other first-place grant winner is Lydia Madlem. “Words cannot express my immense gratitude for being named one of the first-place recipients of NCRF’s New Professional Reporter Grant,” Madlem said. “The journey to my current position as an official court reporter in the small town of Charleston, Ill., has been filled with countless challenges making this national recognition even more meaningful. I am immensely grateful for the outpouring of support from my instructors, coworkers, friends, and family throughout my court reporting journey. I extend my sincere gratitude to the NCRF Trustees for recognizing my story and selecting me among so many deserving applicants.”
Winning the second-place award was a major source of joy and gratitude for our grantees. Said Karli Pikala, “I am beyond grateful to have received this grant. The community and support I’ve felt throughout my court reporting journey somehow continues to grow and is made apparent through opportunities such as this one. I strive to be an asset to our profession and to keep our legacy of community and camaraderie alive. Thank you to all of the donors who made this possible!”
Earning certifications is on tap for second-place winner Averie Pritchard. “I am honored and excited to have been chosen to receive this grant by the NCRF Trustees,” she said. “I am grateful and plan to use this award to further my skills and fund my certification training and testing. Thank you so much!”
Monyeen Black Memorial Grant and Michelle Grimes Memorial Grant
A touching way to pay tribute to someone our members cared about is to establish a grant in their memory. “Our thoughtful members have established these generous grants to memorialize Monyeen Black and Michelle Grimes,” said NCRF Chair Doug Friend, FAPR, RDR, CRR (Ret.). “These grants assist our deserving winners who could be either court reporters or CART captioners.”
Each 2024 grant winner received a $2,000 award. Funds donated by our generous members provide these awards, and each donation is a tax write-off through the National Court Reporters Foundation.
The 2024 Monyeen Black Memorial Grant winners are Jacey Samic, RPR, from Doylestown, Ohio, and Sara Sapp, RSR, from Collinsville, Ill. The 2024 Michelle Grimes Memorial Grant winner is McKalie Bellew, RPR, from Florence, Ariz. The newly named grant winners share their stories about how and why they entered the profession.
Samic was seeking a career that would provide a sense of fulfillment. “I first heard about court reporting as I perused courses offered by my local community college, Stark State,” she said. “I was looking for an associate’s degree that would match my personality. Seeing that Stark State was offering the NCRA A to Z® Intro to Steno Machine Shorthand program, I enrolled and met the person who is both my current coworker and boss and who also mentored me through the whole program.
“Making the commitment of time and effort to practice steno and complete the program was a huge decision. But I had always found typing very enjoyable and the uniqueness and variety of court reporting was likewise compelling. I was also interested in this way of being able to serve the justice system and/or hopefully the deaf community as well. [I hope] to branch out into CART work which has always been my goal.”
Fascinated and captivated by the legal and justice system, Sapp said, “I ended up falling face-first into the legal field. I worked as a criminal and traffic clerk and then as a legal assistant for the public defender’s office. The pursuit of justice was something I started feeling strongly about. It was inspiring to me how our attorneys contributed to the fight for fairness in our system. I knew I was not suited to being an attorney myself, but I knew there had to be a place for me here.
“My next stop was a court reporting firm. I observed how things worked in the freelance world and got to meet stellar reporters. When my company decided to offer a free NCRA A to Z program in the summer of 2019, I knew I had to sign up. I had literally nothing to lose, and I could learn something!
“I had my epiphany the first Saturday morning of that class. I was hooked. Not only did I love writing on this crazy, little machine, but I also realized this was my ticket to keep learning.”
As a self-taught, eager-to-learn-more typist at an early age, Bellew knew typing was something that she actually enjoyed. “Truthfully, it took about a year in school before I realized that a career in stenographic court reporting was for me,” she said. “I wasn’t interested, but I was doing it. Knowing what the dropout rate for this profession was, I pushed myself as a single mom to keep going because at least I was one of few that had this skill and understood the concept of stenographic shorthand.
“Ironically, my entire life my family joked that I would be ‘the girl in the courtroom that types everything.’ As such, typing those very words into the Google search bar late one night in the first few months of the pandemic is how I found this career. I eventually, thankfully, fell head over heels in love with it.
“In my first year of school, I was not focused. I didn’t have a practice regimen because I only practiced when it was coming down to the wire to pass a speed or speeds. Practicing was always why and how I progressed in school. I told myself if I didn’t pass Theory 101, I was not going to continue pursuing this profession. I had nine speed tests to pass in 14 days and miraculously achieved that goal with time to spare.”
Review all NCRF scholarships and grants.
Contact Jill Parker Landsman at jlandsman@ncra.org with scholarship and grant questions.
