Sinclair College’s student media organization, The Clarion, has been recognized as one of the top 10 community college news outlets in the country by the A-Mark Foundation, receiving a $500 grant for 2025-2026 and awarding one student pursuing a career in journalism $5000.
The A-Mark Foundation is a nationally recognized media organization based in California, supporting and promoting journalism and investigative reporting through an official endowment.
A-Mark partners with schools and organizations across the nation to recognize media organizations and award prestigious grants and scholarships to individuals, schools and media organizations.
Founded in 1997 by Steven Markoff, the foundation originally funded and published nonpartisan research reports on ProCon.org, which was acquired by Encyclopedia Britannica in 2020. Those reports are archived on A-Mark’s website, but no longer updated.
A-Mark’s new stated mission is “to promote and encourage journalism and investigative reporting” by not only producing research like in the past, but supporting the journalists who write such investigative reports.
A-Mark now partners with organizations and schools in 48 states and Washington D.C., and they are still growing.
The A-Mark Foundation Board “has deep ties to community colleges,” said Tracey DeFrancesco, COO of the A-Mark Foundation. Her own parents taught at community colleges for two decades. “There’s lots of support from Sinclair for journalism and students from very passionate staff and faculty.”
DeFrensesco believes that investigative journalism is seeing a major shift.
“We’re in a critical moment,” she said. “It’s tough…but journalists long to mentor [those who are interested].”
Now, with its new mission, A-Mark has its sights set on the future.
“We just received a new $10 million donation from the founder. Exciting things are coming,” DeFrenseco said.
While A-Mark Foundation empowers journalism and journalists, the award recipients work to put journalism in action.
Noah Schlarman is the executive editor of The Clarion and winner of A-Mark Foundation’s 2025-2026 Student Journalism Grant of $5000. Although he always wanted to be a writer, he felt like making that a reality was a “pipe dream.”
After graduating high school, he worked in construction and carpentry for four years, but never felt satisfied. Eventually, he decided to follow his passion and enroll at Sinclair.
“I figured that I’d rather take a chance at this dream and fail, than not try and always wonder what might have been,” Schlarman said.
He enrolled in the creative writing degree program at Sinclair. Schlarman credits his professor for his position at The Clarion.
“She was really supportive and encouraged me to apply as a reporter. In the beginning I really only wanted to have some poetry published,” Schlarman said. “I hadn’t ever really done journalism before becoming a reporter, but I knew I loved writing and telling peoples’ stories, and journalism was a natural extension of that. About a month after I got hired on, the executive editor position became available and I was kind of chosen to be the next one.”
Schlarman will graduate Sinclair at the end of spring 2026 semester. Afterwards, he plans to work over summer and use his prize money to transfer to Wright State University, where he will continue his passion for journalism by doing more freelance reporting. Eventually, he would love to move to New York City and continue his journalism career.
“I like being the editor, but I love writing the stories,” Schlarman said. “And putting a spotlight on people, things and places that deserve more attention than they’re getting.”
THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON FEB. 9, 2026
Loura Lawrence, reporter
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