FRESNO — Fresno State students Jiselle Cardenas and Heidi Ecker were awarded the James L. Melikian Popcorn Man Scholarship for the 2023-2024 academic year. Cardenas is receiving a $2,500 scholarship, and Ecker is receiving a $2,000 scholarship.
Both students are juniors majoring in Media, Communications and Journalism (MCJ) with an emphasis in Advertising and Public Relations and both are team leaders for TALK, the student-run AD/PR agency course. Cardenas led the team who ran this semester’s TASTE (Take a Student to Eat) networking program that matched current MCJ students with area professionals, and Ecker is leading the team that is charged with coming up with ideas and sample materials for a campaign refresh for Yosemite National Park’s Keep Bears Wild project.
The James L. Melikian Popcorn Man Scholarship is generously funded by James L. Melikian, who graduated from the MCJ Department when it was the Journalism Department. Melikian’s studies focused on public relations and he has built a very successful business called The Popcorn Man. The company specializes in providing school districts in California and other states with healthy, nutritious items for the National School Breakfast and Lunch Program, the Child Care Program as well as the After School Snack Program.
Melikian graduated from Fresno State in 1969 with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism, and was President of the Hye Society organization. He fondly reflects on the support and guidance he received from the late journalism and public relations professor Bernard A. “Bernie” Shepard, Ph.D. and Dr. Arthur H. Margosian. (Shepard established the Public Relations program at Fresno State. He was a member of the Fresno State Department of Journalism for almost 30 years, joining the staff in 1943. He brought vision and a wide-range of experience to the department.) “My public relations aptitude and people orientation was nurtured by my education at Fresno State and my relationships with Professor Shepard and Dr. Margosian,” says Melikian. One of Melikian’s efforts has been to provide funding for three scholarships for journalism department students specializing in public relations.
At Fresno State, Jim served as the manager for the legendary Bulldog baseball coach Pete Beiden the last two years of the Coach’s tenure. Melikian was one of the donors for the “Pete Beiden Statue” that sits in the shadows of the aptly named Beiden Field. As an up and coming journalist, he wrote political articles and his column, “In the Dog House,” which was a must read in the University’s “Daily Collegian.” As President of the Hye Society, he was responsible for bringing Fresno’s celebrated Pulitzer prize-winning author, playwright and novelist William Saroyan to speak at one of the Society’s meetings. Melikian was the keynote speaker for the mass communication and journalism department’s convocation prior to the 100th commencement at Fresno State in 2011.
In 2014, he was a recipient of the Fresno State “Top Dog” award, recognizing outstanding alumni, and he has been an active supporter of both the Armenian Studies Program and the Department of Media, Communications, and Journalism at Fresno State. He is an Alumni Association Life Member and a Bulldog Foundation supporter. He was one of 13 honored by Fresno State and the Alumni Association. Honorees came from Fresno State’s various Schools and Departments. Melikian was nominated from the School of Arts and Humanities.
