COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - Television game show host Alex Trebek and his wife have donated an undisclosed amount of money to a new Stephens College screenwriting program.
The online graduate program in TV and film writing at the women's college in Columbia sends students to Jim Henson Company Studios in Hollywood for 10 days each semester.
Trebek and his wife Jean are friends of program director and Los Angeles screenwriter and playwright Ken LaZebnik, a Columbia native. The two families' children attended school together.
The gift from the Alex and Jean Trebek Family Foundation will fund an endowed chair in screenwriting. The new faculty position will focus on the psychology of film and television characters.
School officials say they hope to boost the number of female writers in Hollywood.