Fourth Annual Scholarship
The national positive news company Carvd N Stone has been awarding scholarships since 2019. Carvd N Stone’s first scholarship fund, the CNS Scholarship Fund, was started in 2019 to support college students and Milwaukee creatives. Carvd N Stone Founder Nyesha Stone established the scholarship because she never received one herself. Stone was in her early 20s, barely making any money, but found a way to award $22,500 in scholarships through that fund before it closed due to the lack of sustainability.
It was in that same year, 2022, that Carvd N Stone was approached by Steve Hintz with an ask to honor his late father, Loren Martin Hintz. Together, Carvd N Stone and Steve created the CNS Loren Martin Hintz Travel Writing Scholarship to annually award $1,000 to a Milwaukee writer based on an 800-word essay about traveling. The scholarship is currently funded by Steve.
“My dad was a truly special person, and this scholarship keeps his spirit of generosity and curiosity alive,” Steve said in a LinkedIn post.
For the first time, Carvd N Stone held an in-person ceremony to announce and honor the CNS Loren Martin Hintz Travel Writing Scholarship winner on December 11, 2025, at Radio Milwaukee.
Alivia Allen was named the 2025 CNS Loren Martin Hintz Travel Writing Scholarship winner, receiving a $1,000 check and a personalized plaque. As this marked the first year of hosting a formal ceremony, past Travel Writing Scholarship recipients were also invited and honored with plaques.
A Writer at Heart
Allen is a Milwaukee native who currently attends Marquette University, where she’s aiming for a degree in Political Science and a minor in Communications. Winning the CNS Loren Martin Hintz Travel Writing Scholarship came as a surprise to Allen, even though she’s been in love with writing since a kid.
“Writing is something I really love,” she said.
Allen went to a conservative high school where she wrote about “tough” topics like misogyny and systemic racism. It was during those times that she felt her voice wasn’t being heard, which only encouraged her to keep writing.
“I like to express how I feel by writing it down,” said Allen.
She eventually met a teacher in her junior year who not only encouraged Allen but also helped her develop to become a better writer.
Now that she’s in college, she’s taking writing workshop classes to further develop her skills with the goal of one day informing her community on topics she feels they should know. As for right now, Allen is enjoying being a 19-year-old teenager as she figures out how and what impact she wants to make in the world.
Winning Essay
Allen wrote an 800-word essay based on the 2025 theme: “In what ways has traveling away from your hometown and exploring new places changed you?“. Allen found out about the scholarship from Instagram ads, and it took a few times of seeing it before she took the chance on herself.
She credits herself as a talker, so when it came to writing this essay, she talked it over with her family. She even wrote a bullet point list of all the places she’s gone and how they’ve impacted her. Then the idea came to her: Allen chose to write about her nana’s trip to Washington, D.C., at age 13 years old, and how Allen took a similar journey at just 10 years old.
Allen’s essay, entitled Living the Legacy She Left Behind, highlights history, family, growing up in Milwaukee, and so much more. In just 800 words, Allen took readers on a journey that left an impact on the judges. She plans to use the scholarship funds toward her tuition, helping ease the financial burden her mother has been carrying.
“She’s really my guardian angel,” said Allen.
For Allen, winning this scholarship is a testimony to believing in oneself.
“There’s a chance even if you don’t think it’s going to work out for you,” said Allen.
Read Allen’s winning essay here.
Nyesha Stone founded Carvd N Stone in 2017 to cover positive news while attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Stone has a B.A. in Journalism. She has raised over $30,000 to award grants and scholarships. She has also been featured in ESSENCE and worked with the American Black Film Festival.
