Dow Jones News Fund digital media intern Aiyana Ishmael speaks to the NABJ J-Shop summer workshop about the importance of facts and how to identify misinformation in social media.

PRINCETON, N.J. – The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded a $50,000 grant to the Dow Jones News Fund to teach teens journalism and encourage reporting on inequities in healthcare, education and other public services in its 2021 summer high school journalism workshops.

The News Fund will award grants to academic institutions and nonprofit organizations to provide journalism training to students from under-resourced communities. Special emphasis will be placed on programs that find creative ways to engage and inspire students in an online setting. This includes virtual newsroom tours, at-home exercises, mentoring from professional journalists and reporting on compelling topics with direct bearing on students’ health and well-being.

Students’ primary research and reporting topics should cover inequities in health and public policy within their community, such as COVID-19 treatment, vaccine distribution, access to technology, online learning, physical fitness, food deserts, poverty, income inequality, substance abuse or environmental hazards.

The News Fund will also award up to $12,000 in college scholarships through an essay competition for students who attend DJNF-funded programs.

  • Deadline for proposals is Monday, March 1. Click here for the proposal guidelines which includes a link to the 2021 application.
  • Grants will range from $5,000 to $8,000.
  • Proposals should include a workshop theme or topic, budget, resumes of staff and speakers, a detailed tentative schedule and an example of previous work done by students, if applicable.
  • DJNF will evaluate proposals using several criteria, including the health and inequities theme, student engagement, quality of journalism instruction, number of students, the extent of community outreach, commitment to diversity, collaboration with media and involvement of professional journalists.

DJNF will host an information session on Feb. 11 at 1:30 p.m. ET. Email heather.taylor@dowjones.com for details.

Workshop directors are also invited to add their program to the Dow Jones News Fund’s Directory of High School Workshops. Complete this form to be added or to update a listing.

Since 2018, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has granted the News Fund $180,000 for summer journalism programs that concentrate on health and wellness topics as they teach teens to report and write for an audience, shoot and edit video and take photos.

About The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve health and health care. We are working with others to build a national Culture of Health enabling everyone in America to live longer, healthier lives. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.