Journalism has been a passion of Meg Brown's since she created a classroom newspaper in the fourth grade. That passion sent the Profile School senior on to edit her middle and high school newspapers.

Brown also works as an intern at the Littleton Courier, where she realized the power of journalism to spread ideas and encourage community discourse.

“To receive comments on my articles from people I've never met is powerful, and to spread an idea is more so,” Brown wrote in her winning essay for the 2012 Loeb Educational Grant.

The Union Leader Charitable Fund Inc.'s Board of Directors chose Brown as this year's winner of the $5,000 prize. She will use the money to study Electronic Journalism at Lyndon State College this fall.

The grant was named for William and Nackey S. Loeb, the late publishers of the Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News. The Loebs worked tirelessly to sustain the autonomy of New Hampshire's largest daily newspaper, and this year's grant was given to the person who best exemplified their spirit of independence and journalistic integrity.

In her essay, Brown wrote she would like to use her education to promote accuracy and independence in the news. “To me independent journalism is writing with fact rather than what's easy to believe.”

Littleton Courier Editor Art McGrath, who recommended Brown for the grant, wrote that the Sugar Hill resident already had an experienced reporter's 'nose for news' when she started writing for the paper. He wrote that Brown regularly comes up with her own story ideas, “and they are good, newsworthy stories that I would have any reporter write.”

The Loeb Educational Grant is open to any individual, regardless of age or educational status, who has been a New Hampshire resident for at least two years and plans to attend a post-secondary education program. For more information or a copy of the application, please contact Katie McQuaid Cote at kmcquaid@unionleader.com.

The mission of Union Leader Charitable Fund, Inc., a not for profit corporation established in 2006, is to provide charitable support to social and humanitarian groups, causes and individuals, including programs for literacy, education and other community needs in the state of New Hampshire. Union Leader Charitable Fund Inc. serves the community in all of its activities without discrimination based on race, color, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religious affiliation, creed, marital status, veteran status, national or ethnic origin.