The National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF) is happy to announce the winner of the 2017 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship – Ruby Xia.
Ruby is an Animation major at the Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada. She was chosen from over 90 applicants for the award, which includes a $5,000 scholarship and a trip to the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award Weekend in Portland, OR in May.
Ruby has worked on six animated short films in the last three years with her first-year film, “Fridge Princess” being accepted in a half dozen film festivals, including the Giffoni International Children’s Festival. She is also a caricature artist and was featured in the book, Sketching from the Imagination: Characters. Ruby loves collaborating with fellow artists and plans on pursuing a career in concept art in the animation and gaming industries.
The Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship is an annual award established in memory of Jay Kennedy, the late King Features comics editor, from an initial grant from the Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate and additional generous donations from other prominent cartoonists. It is administered by the National Cartoonists Society Foundation. The applicants submitted eight examples of their work along with an entry form that included short essays on their current and future plans in cartooning. Entries were judged by a jury of professional cartoonists who are members of the National Cartoonists Society Foundation. The scholarship is awarded to a college student in the United States, Canada or Mexico who will be in their Junior or Senior year of college during the following academic year.