Press Release – 2026 APALA Scholarship and Sage & JCLC Inc. NALCo LIS Student Scholarship Recipients
The Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) Scholarships and Awards Committee is excited to announce the recipients of the 2026 APALA Scholarship and the Sage & JCLC Inc. NALCo Student Scholarship Award! Please extend a heartfelt congratulations to Jean Lin and Aria Pahari!
Learn more about our 2026 recipients below.
If you are interested in future scholarship or development award opportunities for APALA members, please visit https://www.apalaweb.org/
2026 APALA Scholarship Recipient: Jean Lin
Jean Lin (she/they) is working towards her Master’s in Library and Information Science at UCLA, with interests in data services, digital asset management, and open access (OA) principles. She currently serves as President/Chair of the Student Governing Board (SGB), a collective of student liaisons in the UCLA Department of Information Studies. This past summer, they completed a Media Management internship at Critical Role and a Publisher Relations internship at JSTOR. While they’re currently exploring medical and health science librarianship as a career path, Jean is always interested in other meaningful ways of bridging data and people.
The APALA Scholarship is an annual $2,000 award that provides financial assistance to a student of Asian or Pacific background who is enrolled in, or has been accepted into, a master’s or doctoral degree program in library and/or information science at a school accredited by the American Library Association (ALA).
2026 APALA Sage & JCLC NALCo LIS Student Scholarship Recipient: Aria Pahari
Aria Pahari is a Nepali American librarian and poet. She received her MFA in Poetry at the University of Arizona, where she works presently as Library Specialist at the University of Arizona Poetry Center.
The Sage Publishing and the Joint Council of Librarians of Color (JCLC Inc.) scholarship awards $2,000 to five library school students – one from each of the five National Associations of Librarians of Color (NALCo), including APALA.