Student Scholarship Winners

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The Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas is proud to announce the 2025 Student Scholarship winners!

The 2025 recipients are Dasia Garner at North Carolina A&T University and Zyreail Harden at the University of South Carolina in Columbia SC. (Learn more about each winner below.)

Each year, RTDNAC awards a $2,000 scholarship each to a North Carolina and a South Carolina college student majoring in a field connected to the news industry.

The RTDNAC Scholarships have been named for the late Dr. John R. Bittner, RTDNAC’s first executive manager and a member of the faculty in the journalism school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Funding for the scholarships has been provided by Hearst Television Inc./WYFF4 and the RTDNAC Board of Directors.

2025 Scholarship Winners

North Carolina Recipient

Dasia Garner

Dasia is a Journalism & Mass Communications major with extensive experience beyond the classroom. She has held a number of positions, including executive producer

at NCAT News, a student produced newscast on the campus cable system and You Tube TV. She represented the NCAT Newsroom in Washington DC at the Indaba Student Newsroom Conference hosted by Howard University.

She is a member of the campus chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). She has served as the chapter’s social media director. Dasia credits the organization with providing connections for mentorships and professional development. She enjoys being a member of a group of like-minded students.

Dasia has had the opportunity to be a producer intern at WGHP, the Fox affiliate in the Greensboro-Winston Salem-High Point market. She has produced newscast segments as well as assisting with overall production of the newscasts. In addition, she had a shadowing opportunity at WGN in Chicago.

South Carolina Recipient

Zyreail Harden

Zyreail is a fourth year student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. She is majoring in Mass Communications and minoring in Entrepreneurship.

Her interest in storytelling was sparked by being named editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper at Fort Mill High School in South Carolina. She was selected to attend the Washington and Media Conference in her junior year. This experience only reaffirmed her interest in journalism.

While attending the University of South Carolina, she has served as chapter President of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). Zyreail says this leadership position has allowed her to organize networking events, produce content for NABJ-TV and support other students as they move forward in their academic careers.

One of Zyreail’s references pointed to her drive for good storytelling as a tool to make real change. A recent assignment covered a Columbia SC industrial plant that was found to be discharging harmful chemical into the river that serves as the city’s water supply. The EPA reported the chemical posed an reasonable risk of injury to human health. Her reporting involved extensive research, interviews with key stakeholders and shooting photos of the spill site. Zyreail planned to produce a podcast based on this story.

Zyreail’s long-range career plans include owning a media outlet of her own.

She developed her passion for journalism during her travels as the child of a military parent.

Previous Scholarship Winners

Click to view previous winners