Although the first wave of internship and fellowship deadlines passed in November, numerous opportunities are still available for students, recent graduates and experienced full-time journalists. Get your applications in on time to take advantage of these opportunities in 2014 (listed in order of deadline — strikethrough means deadline has passed):
Investigative Reporters and Editors Student Mentorship Program
IRE is launching a new one-year mentorship program to pair student journalists with professionals for “one-on-one guidance, advice, critiques and conversation, and online training opportunities.” Soon-to-graduate college students who are IRE members are eligible.
Deadline: Dec. 20, 2013
Apply onlineAssociated Press Global News Internship Program
Twenty students or recent graduates with experience in video enter a 12-week summer internship at AP’s U.S. and international bureaus covering breaking news. With a designated supervisor, the interns train to become “cross-format journalists.”
Deadline: Through Dec. 27, 2013 (based on availability)
Apply onlineKnight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford University
The three-quarter, fully funded fellowships are open to full-time, experienced journalists and journalism entrepreneurs, innovators, business and management executives to experiment with and develop new ideas that shape the future of journalism.
Deadline: Jan. 5, 2014 (U.S. applicants, international deadlines expired)
Apply onlineAlexia Foundation offers one Professional Grant to a working photojournalist for “a story that helps further world peace and cultural understanding” and a series of grants to five student photojournalists to help fund studies or projects.
Deadline: Jan. 13, 2014 (for professional grant, $50 application fee), Jan. 27, 2014 (for student grants)
Apply onlineO’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism offers three experienced journalists the chance to spend an academic year at Marquette University to work on a public service project that their companies will publish or broadcast. Fellows return to their newsrooms with a paid Marquette intern the following summer.
Deadline: Jan. 15, 2014
Apply online and by mailSociety of Professional Journalists Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information Internships
SPJ takes two interns for its First Amendment legal counsel in D.C. and its National Headquarters in Indianapolis to research and contribute to its Freedom of Information report. Interns receive a stipend for a 10-week internship during the summer of 2014.
Deadline: Jan. 22, 2014
Apply online and by mail- Google Journalism Fellowship
Fellows work at 10 different nonprofit journalism host organizations for 10 weeks, boosting their digital reporting skills. Applicants write a personal statement to the host organization, not Google, explaining their qualifications and what they hope to gain from the experience. Portfolios and samples of work help illustrate expertise and potential to succeed. The host organizations’ job descriptions might be vague, but the goal is for current students or recent graduates to personalize the fellowship to the skills they want to master.
Deadline: Jan. 31, 2014
Apply online - Nieman Fellowship (and Nieman-Berkman Fellowship) at Harvard University
Working journalists receive a stipend to spend a year at Harvard to explore a research topic. The Nieman Foundation also offers more specialized fellowships like the Nieman-Berkman fellowship for journalists interested in innovation and the evolution of digital spaces and Reynolds Fellowship for business journalism.
Deadline: Jan. 31, 2014
Apply online and mail - Metpro Tribune at Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times
Recent graduates and aspiring journalists with “diverse backgrounds or life experiences” can apply for training at a Tribune newspaper.
Deadline: Jan. 31, 2014
Apply by mail - Time Academic and Summer Internships, Lifestyle Group Fellowship
Time offers paid 10-week summer internships in different departments, including public relations, brand marketing and editorial. The Lifestyle group fellowship, based in Birmingham, Ala., offers experience to work in different departments, including Southern Living, Coastal Living, Cooking Light and Oxmoor House.
Deadline: Jan. 31, 2014 (summer), March 15, 2014 (Lifestyle Group)
Apply online - Knight-Wallace Fellowship at University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
A year of academic study with a stipend, free tuition and international travel allows full-time, experienced journalists to expand their perspectives and take university classes and seminars
Deadline: Feb. 1, 2014 (U.S. and international applicants)
Apply online and by mail - Shorenstein Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government hosts eight fellows each year (four per semester) to conduct research in media, politics and public policy as well as interact with Harvard students and professors. Past participants have included journalists, politicians, policymakers and scholars.
Deadline: Feb. 1, 2014
Apply online - The Financial Times is hosting “a three-month internship in the memory of Peter Martin, the FT’s former chief business columnist and deputy editor.” The successful candidate will have a degree and an interest in business as well as the economic impact of technology. The internship takes place in London so candidates must be eligible to work in the E.U.
Deadline: Feb. 21, 2014
Apply online - Journalism Grants’ Innovation for Development Reporting Grant Programme is offering professional journalists working at a media outlet the chance to creatively report stories about international development issues. Partial and full grants support research and travel expenses, equipment and software.
Deadline: Feb. 26, 2014
Apply online - Fulbright – National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship gives up to five applicants the chance to travel for nine months overseas to work on a multimedia storytelling project of global significance. Fellows receive Fulbright benefits to cover travel, stipend and health as well as training in digital storytelling and a National Geographic editor to mentor them. Their ongoing work will appear on the National Geographic website.
Deadline: Feb. 28, 2014 at 5 p.m. ET
Apply online only - Knight-Bagehot Fellowship at Columbia University
A year-long fellowship offers full-time experienced journalists to “enhance their understanding and knowledge of business, economics and finance” with a stipend and free tuition.
Deadline: March 1, 2014
Apply by mail - The Marine Biological Laboratory offers science writers, journalists and editors the chance to participate in the Logan Science Journalism Program, which trains journalists in biomedical and environmental research. The program covers room, lab and travel fees in the U.S.
Deadline: March 1, 2014
Apply online - Reuters Global Journalism Internship (in Asia and Europe)
Reuters offers six eight-week paid internship in Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Beijing ) and six six-week paid internships in London. Interns undergo a “crash course in hands-on business, political and general news reporting” with a senior editor supervisor and guidance from a journalist mentor.
Deadline: Applications open Jan 2, 2014, deadline March 31, 2014 (U.S. internships deadline passed)
Apply online - Scripps Howard Foundation Wire offers recent graduates with a bachelor’s or master’s degree a year-long multimedia fellowship in D.C. with a stipend to work on SHF Wire’s website and multimedia projects with university interns.
Deadline: April 1, 2014
Application information available in January
To help guide applicants, Jill Geisler, senior faculty at Poynter, provided this advice: “Give me evidence of what you can do, not a list of classes you took,” Geisler said. “What can you bring to the party that others can’t?”
One way to demonstrate your skills and smarts is to have a list of great story and project ideas ready for an interview. Stanford University journalism professor R.B. Brenner said aspiring journalists have to earn their chances to show their skills and talents.
After you get an internship, keep developing the story list in case you run into a senior editor who asks you how the news organization could improve coverage. Great story ideas really help interns stand out, said Brenner, former metro editor at The Washington Post. “It’s what I call opportunity meets preparation.”
Don’t complain about the night-time shift, Brenner added, if that’s where you land. If breaking news happens at night and there are 20 people in the newsroom, the intern usually gets to make calls and might even write posts for a blog.
A final piece of advice that I need to keep reminding myself: closely read and follow instructions in the fellowship, internship or job description. The personal statement in the Google Journalism Fellowship, for example, is directed to the host organization, not to Google. The care and attention you put into your application is as important as the first impression your résumé makes.
News organizations that have opportunities still open and would like to be part of this evolving list can email me at ali@poynter.org.
(Disclosure: I’m a 2013 Google Journalism Fellow.)
Comments