Who fights to make public COVID-19 data, such as how many cases have been reported in your school district or the infection rate at your grandparent’s nursing home? Who holds politicians accountable for their policies and promises on issues like climate change or gun violence? Who can say what is happening on the ground when bystander and official reports conflict? Journalists!
If you want to affect change, shine a light on issues that affect your friends and family, and have a passion for finding facts, journalism might be the path for you. We invite you to apply for the Poynter Institute’s prestigious High School Journalism Program this summer.
You can expect personalized instruction from globally renowned Poynter faculty and award-winning media professionals delivered in a high-production online learning environment. You’ll get a cutting-edge journalism 101 education that can launch you into a communications program in college, set you up for an internship, or help you apply to your student paper. And importantly, you will develop relationships with your class and form valuable connections with working journalists from across the country.
By the end of the intensive, 10-day online program, you will have produced a ready-to-publish multimedia story about a health issue, such as COVID-19, and written a personal essay.
Program History
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a global leader in journalism education and a strategy center that stands for uncompromising excellence in journalism, media and 21st-century public discourse. Tens of thousands of professional journalists train with Poynter each year, whether online or in person. The media organizations you rely on — including The Washington Post, NPR, USA Today, National Geographic, the Associated Press, Google, Facebook and hundreds of local newspapers and TV stations — work directly with Poynter to stay relevant, develop leaders, grapple with ethics issues and more. Poynter is also the home of the Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact, the International Fact-Checking Network and MediaWise, a digital information literacy project for young people, first-time voters and senior citizens.
The High School Journalism Program is one of the longest-running programs at Poynter. Founded along with the Institute in 1975, its goal is to give young people the chance to learn about writing and develop a passion for the values and craft of journalism.
It was formerly open only to high school students near our St. Petersburg, Florida campus, but we completely redesigned the program in 2020 and made it available online to high school students across the U.S.
Questions?
If you need assistance, email us at info@poynter.org.
