Judy Stanley Memorial Scholarship or Donation

The portrait at the top this page is how I will remember Judy Stanley — a journalism teacher who would do anything to help her students, including standing outside in misting ice for an hour with only a Mike's Hard Lemonade to warm her when I needed a last-minute portrait for my freshman photojournalism class in college.

She kept laughing and yelling, "Did you get it Jan-Ass?" a tongue in cheek (not that kind of cheek) play on my full name, Janice.

Judy created these unforgettable moments, not just with me, but with everyone she met. She was one of those teachers who altered the course of your life.

In the spring of 2004, then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was set to speak at Vanderbilt University's commencement ceremony. The morning of the speech, Judy walked into her classroom and told me, a high school junior at the time, we were going. She then turned around and walked into the principal's office, informing him that she needed a substitute for the day. She didn't ask; she told. Within minutes we were speeding the 45 minutes down the interstate to Vanderbilt. Upon arrival, Judy somehow convinced the Secret Service that this frantic teacher and her high school student needed press credentials to cover the speech. Again, she didn't ask; she told. And it worked. I got to cover the biggest event of my early journalism career.

Throughout Judy’s life, she walked through doors and then held them wide open for others. A friend who I worked with at my college newspaper recently told me, "Her impact on you has had a ripple effect on a lot of us." I hope to be able to continue that ripple through this fundraiser.

Judy represented the best of journalism. She taught me and so many others that you don’t have to lose your own humanity in the quest for "objectivity;" that your reporting is nothing if you don’t have the respect of the community you are reporting on; and that it is how you correct your mistakes that matters, not that you made them in the first place.

The money from this GoFundMe will be used to empower the next generation of high school journalists in Tennessee.

We are still in the very beginning stages of understanding how donations and scholarships might work, but we have reached out to the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), the Journalism Education Association (JEA), and the Tennessee High School Press Association (THSPA) for more information and guidance. The funds raised will either be used:

Rest easy JuDawg.