UCLA student wins student stipend for YALSA’s Young Adult Literature Symposium

Contact: Stephanie Kuenn


Communications Specialist


312-280-2128


skuenn@ala.org

NEWS


For Immediate Release


March 23, 2010

CHICAGO — Jessica Levy, a student in the Department of Information Studies at the University of California-Los Angeles, has won the 2010 Young Adult Literature Symposium student stipend from the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA).




Levy applied for the scholarship to gain practical knowledge in young adult librarianship, the field she hopes to enter upon graduation. Attending the symposium will strengthen her knowledge of YA service as well as complement her role as an intern in a public library’s youth services department in fall 2010.




“My MLIS program has neither many courses in youth services nor a teen services specialist on faculty, and I want to connect with those in the field as much as possible before entering into it,” Levy wrote in her application. “Going to the 2010 YALSA symposium will help me forge connections and help me to apply what I’ve learned in the classroom with what challenges and tasks lie ahead of me on the job.”




Gregory Leazer, who chairs UCLA’s Department of Information Studies, highly recommended Levy. Leazer called Levy a leader in the department, noting that she served as the book drive coordinator for a student group that interacts with a juvenile justice facility and regularly advocates for additional coursework in YA services in the department.




“I am very happy that Ms. Levy has found this opportunity at YALSA—I know it will make a difference in Ms. Levy’s preparation to serve as a young adult librarian in the near future,” Leazer wrote. “She will turn this opportunity to her full advantage.”




The Young Adult Literature Symposium will be held at the Albuquerque Marriott, Nov. 5-7, with a theme of “Beyond Good Intentions: Diversity, Literature and Teens.” The symposium is funded in part by the William C. Morris Endowment. Details about the symposium, including registration rates and housing information, are available at
www.ala.org/yalitsymposium. For more than 50 years, YALSA has been the world leader in selecting books, videos and audio books for teens.




For more information about YALSA or for lists of recommended reading, viewing and listening, go to www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists, or contact the YALSA office by phone, (800) 545-2433, ext. 4390, or e-mail,
yalsa@ala.org.