Valeria Estefanía Dávila Gronros receives first deg farrelly Memorial/Alexander Street AMIA/FMRT Media Librarian Scholarship

CHICAGO — Ed Tech leader ProQuest announced the first winner of a scholarship presented in collaboration with the Film and Media Roundtable (FMRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA).

Valeria Estefanía Dávila Gronros, a master's candidate at The University of Alabama, was selected to receive the deg farrelly Scholarship from a group of online applicants by a panel of FMRT and AMIA members, based on criteria established for the scholarship. 

Valeria’s passion for film preservation began in Argentina while working to preserve her country’s film heritage through digital film restoration.  After earning an undergraduate degree in Cinematography, Valeria became the first in her family to pursue a graduate degree overseas.  She currently resides in Corvallis, Oregon and is “committed to fostering a diverse film culture through access to international films.”

“AMIA is very grateful to be working with ProQuest and the ALA Film and Media Round Table on the deg farrelly Scholarship,” said Dennis Doros, president of AMIA. “The future of our audiovisual heritage is vital to 21st century education and its preservation and access is paramount to all our organizations. We are honored that Valeria Estefanía Dávila Gronros is the first recipient of this important award.”

The award, sponsored by ALA, FMRT, AMIA and Alexander Street (a ProQuest company), was announced during the virtual FMRT Membership Meeting on June 29, 2020 after the 2020 ALA Annual Conference and FMRT Gala was cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The deg farrelly Memorial/Alexander Street Press AMIA/FMRT Media Librarian Scholarship has two parts – a $1,000 education grant for tuition and books and another $1,000 cash award to be used for other education related expenses like workshops and conference fees.

Volunteers assisting with selection included past Chair of FMRT, Michele McKenzie (City College of San Francisco), Andrew Horbal (Cornell University) and Andrea Leigh (Library of Congress).

“On behalf of all of us at ProQuest, congratulations to Valeria on being the first recipient of this award,” said Sarah Brennan, Product Manager at ProQuest. “Making it possible for students and researchers to access films digitally is absolutely critical to the preservation of history and the advancement of knowledge. The work Valeria is doing will go a long way toward ensuring that advancement continues.”