Three $500 scholarships are being given to students in the court reporting department of Cerritos College for the spring 2012 semester.

The $95,000 grant given to the Court Reporting and Captioning Careers department was used to create more classes and pay teachers as well as provide scholarships for students in the captioning program.

Court reporting major, Denise Robles submitted her essay and spoke on the strategy she used to put her application together.

“I read some articles on captioning and used the information I knew from taking other captioning classes and put it all together for the essay,” she said.

Students studying to be court reporters and captioners are required to purchase a stenotype, books, ink and paper.

This scholarship will help cover the costs of the program along with the books needed for the classes.

Robles also commented on why she chose court reporting as her career.

“With the stability that it has you don’t have to worry about spending money on traveling or getting stuck in traffic,” she said.

Court reporting professor Mary Balmages commented on the benefits of the program, saying,”There are a lot of opportunities for students of all levels in the program who are interested in captioning.”

Court reporting professor Vykii Morgan also commented on the benefits of pursuing a captioning career saying, “It’s a tough program but very rewarding”.

To apply for the scholarship, students need to be enrolled in the program and submit an essay, which will then be reviewed by the professors of the court reporting department who will ultimately choose the winners.