It’s always a treat to attend the Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship Awards Dinner at the National Press Club. Last night’s celebration — my third year at the dinner and Missy’s second — was no different. Chairman Tom Phillips and John Farley put together a great event with an impressive list of attendees.

Eight young journalists were awarded prizes ranging from full-time $50,000 scholarships to $25,000 part-time awards. This year’s class of fellows includes to good friends of mine, Jonathan Last of the Weekly Standard and J.P. Freire of the American Spectator. Frank Shakespeare, former director of the U.S. Information Agency, director of Radio Free Europe, chairman of the Board for International Broadcasting, and U.S. ambassador to Portugal and the Vatican, was presented with the foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Congats to all the winners, who I’ve listed below along with a short bio and project description.

• David Donadio, 27, op-ed editor and manager of editorial services at the Cato Institute. Project: “The Free Press in the Free Market: A Study of How the Internet is Transforming the Newspaper Business.”

• Travis Kavulla, 23, a contributor to National Review and National Review Online. Project: “Africa’s New Christianity and the Future of American Influence.”

• Emily Krone, 28, senior education and immigration reporter at the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights, Ill. Project: “Unchartered Territory: Can Entrepreneurial Charter Schools Achieve the Scale and Sustain the Quality to Transform the American Public School System?”

• Lygia Navarro, 29, a freelance journalist in Oakland, Calif. Project: “Civil Society and Democracy in Latin America.”

• Cheryl Chumley, 40, a staff writer at Potomac News in Woodbridge, Va. Project: “National Heritage Areas: A Blot against Property Rights or a Boon for the Nation?”

• Matthew Continetti, 26, an associate editor at The Weekly Standard. Project: “The Single Society: The Social Transformation Changing American Business, Politics, and Culture.”

• J. Peter Freire, 25, managing editor at The American Spectator. Project: “The University Shakedown: How Universities Take Donations but Refuse Input from Donors Based on the Myth of Academic Freedom.”

• Jonathan Last, 33, a staff writer at The Weekly Standard and a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Project: “The Fertility Rate and America’s Future.”

And finally, a brief note about the fellowship program. If you are a print or online journalist with less than 10 years of professional experience, please consider applying next year. The foundation has awarded 76 fellowships since 1994 for journalism projects based on American culture and a free society.