Contact: Lauren Fernandez
817/607-0060 

ARLINGTON, TEXAS (10/24/08) – The Mensa Education & Research Foundation announces that Birmingham freelance journalist and teacher Chris Copeland will be honored with the 2008 Mensa Press Award. This national award is presented to one individual each year who shows excellence in writing about intelligence and human giftedness. Copeland won the award based on his feature, The Art of Smart, published in the July 2007 Birmingham Magazine. Mensa Region 5 Vice Chairman Nick Sanford presented Copeland with the $1,000 award today.

“The Mensa Press Award was created to honor journalists who spotlight intelligence and giftedness in their work,” said Greg Timmers, President of the Mensa Education & Research Foundation. “The Art of Smart encouraged readers to evaluate their own brains and giftedness, and how to use their own passions and intelligence in everyday life. Copeland’s article encompasses what the Press Award is all about.”

The Art of Smart included tips on how to become brainy, examined different ways a person is smart, and even profiled Birmingham’s smartest people, which includedSanford. The Mensa Press Award is designed to encourage reporters and editors to spread the latest news about intelligence to lay audiences.

For more than thirty years, the Mensa Education & Research Foundation has been a strong voice in supporting intelligence. The Foundation fosters the best and brightest through scholarships and awards, and encourages research and intellectual inquiry through the Mensa Research Journal and various Colloquiums. Governed by a volunteer Board of Trustees, the Mensa Foundation is a 501c(3) organization and is funded by support from American Mensa, Mensa members and other charitable donations. To learn more about the Foundation, log on to www.mensafoundation.org.