The new Christine Phipps Family Foundation will award 10 student scholarships annually for five years to help support students in their travel plans to attend this year’s NCRA Conference & Expo and future ones. This year’s NCRA Conference & Expo is being held Aug. 1-3 in Louisville, Ky. Winning applicants will be chosen based on their situational constraints. The nonprofit’s founder, Christine Phipps, RPR, is the former owner of Phipps Reporting, which was based in West Palm Beach, Fla. She also served as the 2019-2020 NCRA President.
Determination was the key to Phipps’ success as she yearned to provide her children with a good life. In her launch video she said: “I became a court reporter in 1994. At that time I was a single mom, recently divorced with two children. Times were tough. I remember in the early days, the only way you could stay connected with your peers was through networking. Over time, [court reporting] led me into so much more. Going to convention was a game changer. It is inspiring to see what I call the Olympians.” Phipps added that she created this travel scholarship opportunity to provide qualifying student court reporters and captioners with the chance to attend and learn at the Conference without the financial headwinds that she faced.
NCRF Chair Doug Friend, FAPR, RDR, CRR (Ret.), from Vancouver, Wash., said: “NCRF is honored to partner with the Christine Phipps Family Foundation in awarding these 10 scholarships. This is an amazing opportunity for students so close to graduating to be inspired by, to learn from, and just to rub elbows with stenography’s best and brightest! 10,000 thank-yous to Christine and the Phipps Family Foundation for their generosity.”
Applicants must be an NCRA student member in good standing and submit instructor verification of achieving a 180 wpm skills test. Students not in a formal court reporting program can provide verification of speed in the following ways:
- One passed RSRJ skill test
- One passed RPRL skill test
- One passed test on EV360 or Realtime Coach
Applicants are eligible even if they have won a 2024 NCRA Student Conference registration from the NCRF or Student/Teacher Committee drawings.
Download and complete your application and email it to ncrfoundation@ncra.org by May 10 by 5 p.m. Eastern. Winners will be announced on May 17.
