Rossilynne Skena is only 19, but she is on the verge of being an award-winning journalist.

Ms. Skena, of Level Green, will be awarded the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania's annual $5,000 scholarship for a college journalist. The presentation will be May 12 at the 44th Golden Quill Awards dinner at the Hilton Pittsburgh, Downtown.

"I'm honored, grateful and proud to have won this award," said Ms. Skena, a Penn-Trafford High School graduate and a sophomore at Penn State.

"Along with the recognition, the scholarship will help defray the costs of studying journalism."

She knows a lot about it right now. Ms. Skena is the campus editor of the Daily Collegian, her university's independent, student-run daily newspaper. She also has been a reporter covering crime and courts and fraternities.

Ms. Skena and another editor manage a staff of 20 reporters and 10 reporters-in-training.

She also was the editor-in-chief of the Penn-Trafford newspaper, The Warrior; has attended the Penn State Institute for High School Journalists; and has interned with Gateway Newspapers in the eastern suburbs.

"Rossilynne impressed us with her activities," said James J. Cuddy Jr., president of the local Press Club and senior deputy managing editor of the Tribune-Review. "She sure shows a lot of promise as a journalist."

"I can't say enough about how wonderful Rossilynne is," said Devon Lash, editor-in-chief of the Daily Collegian.

"She was the youngest editor on staff when she started, and yet she was still seen as an authority figure while managing her peers. She is organized, always cheerful and is one of the most dependable, responsible people I have ever had the chance to work with."

Ms. Skena works about 30 hours a week at The Collegian, while managing a double major in journalism and women's studies.

She coordinated coverage of the 46-hour student dance marathon -- the biggest student-run philanthropy in the nation -- while balancing her classes and the other campus news beats.

"THON is an inter-fraternity council Panhellenic dance marathon. The proceeds benefit children with cancer," said Ms. Skena, whose round-the-clock coverage helped raise a record $5.2 million.

Last summer, she stayed on campus an extra six weeks, reporting on the local crime scene and courts. Her coverage included a string of armed robberies in State College.

Her parents recognized Ms. Skena's talent to compile a story at a very young age. She dictated her first book at age 4.

"At 4 years old, kids can't even read books," said her father, Ron, a technical writer at Emerson Process Management in O'Hara.

"She dictated a book about a caterpillar with all of these legs. It would go from place to place on garage sale days and buy all of these shoes. Since each garage only had so many shoes, it had to go to a lot of garage sales. It was very cute."

Her mom, Joyce, is a para-educator, working with children with learning disabilities at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville.

Mr. and Mrs. Skena said that when their daughter was 14, she attended the Miss Pennsylvania Teen USA pageant at Bloomsburg University. She stayed in the dorms and competed in the fashion show. For her talent project, she wrote something.

"The result of the weekend was a very confident girl," Mr. Skena said. "Miss Teen Pennsylvania taught her poise, style, how to walk and keep her head up."

Her plans point upward as well. After graduation, Ms. Skena wants to be a reporter for a metropolitan daily paper and work her way up to editor.

"I want a hard news beat," she said. "I love the atmosphere."