PRINCETON, N.J. — The board of directors of the Dow Jones News Fund has approved $490,000 in grants and operating expenses for its 2014 programs that include professional internships this summer for college students, digital training for journalism professors and workshops for high school students.
The Fund, which has been successfully promoting careers in journalism for more than a half century, expects to provide 80 or more paid internships for college juniors, seniors and graduate students in digital journalism, news editing, sports editing and business reporting. To prepare students for their summer jobs, it will again operate training centers on college campuses across the U.S. – one in digital journalism, one in business reporting and five in editing. All seven residential programs will offer digital media training.
The budget also includes $45,000 for training programs in digital media for faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and at institutions with large Hispanic enrollments. These will again be held at Western Kentucky University directed by Dr. Pam Johnson and at the University of Texas at El Paso under the direction of Professor Zita Arocha. A major aim of this effort is to provide journalism professors with the skills they need to produce more and better qualified applicants for News Fund internship programs and for professional news organizations.
Richard J. Levine, president of the News Fund, said, “At a time when traditional news media face historical challenges, the News Fund board is delighted to be able to provide these opportunities for aspiring journalists.”
“The funding also reflects DJNF’s commitment to high school students, teachers and college students in providing support for workshops, recognition for great teaching and opportunities to practice the craft,” said Richard S. Holden, executive director.
COLLEGE PROGRAMS – $250,000
The Fund’s Editing Intern Program will train college students to work as news and sports editors. Each student will attend a Center for Editing Excellence prior to the internship. The Fund allocated money for intern travel and operating costs as well as for $1,000 scholarships for those interns returning to school to complete their undergraduate degrees.
The news editing training centers will be at Temple University, Philadelphia, directed by Dr. Edward Trayes; the University of Texas at Austin, directed by S. Griffin Singer; the University of Missouri, Columbia, directed by Brian Brooks, and the Pennsylvania State University, State College, directed by John Dillon.
Dr. Charlyne Berens will direct the sports editing center at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Digital interns will be trained at the Cronkite School of Journalism, Arizona State University, Phoenix, in the second year of a program directed by Michael Wong.
Will Sutton, a media consultant and Reynolds Business Journalism Fellow, will lead the business reporting program at New York University’s Arthur Carter Journalism Institute.
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT PROGRAMS – $125,000
The Fund’s Summer High School Journalism Programs will include three newly-funded workshops at Savannah State University directed by Wanda Lloyd, the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas directed by Dean Dorothy Bland and the University of Southern Mississippi directed by Dr. Gina Chen.
Workshop funding was also provided to the following organizations: California Chicano News Media Association, Mosaic/San Jose, Calif.; Columbia College of Chicago; Eastern Illinois University/Illinois Press Foundation, Charleston; Florida A&M University, Tallahassee; Marquette University, Milwaukee; New York University; Princeton University Summer Journalism Program; New England High School Journalism Collaborative, Boston; San Antonio College; Connecticut Health Investigative Team; NABJ JShop at Boston, Write on Sports Journalism camps, New Jersey; J-Camp, AAJA; University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; University of Arizona, Tucson; Arizona State University, Phoenix; University of Miami; University of Missouri, Columbia; University of Texas at El Paso; Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green; Virginia Commonwealth University and ThreeSixty Journalism Intermediate Camp, St. Paul, Minn.
Up to four students will be awarded $1,000 college scholarships for the best writing, photography and multimedia package produced in the 2014 summer high school journalism workshops.
HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER PROGRAMS – $10,000
National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year–$3,000 was allotted for scholarships to be awarded in 2014 to students of five high school journalism teachers chosen as best in 2013. An additional $4,000 was granted to promote the program through travel and speaking engagements for the Teacher of the Year at news industry, scholastic and academic conferences. The program will receive in-kind support from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and The Wall Street Journal. The postmark deadline for teachers to apply is July 9.
GENERAL OPERATING EXPENSES AND CAREER INFORMATION – $30,000
More than 5,000 high school journalism teachers, college professors and media professionals receive Adviser Update, the free quarterly newspaper on journalism education and major media issues published by the News Fund.
