DJNF fellows Ellie Nakamoto-White and Layla Ferris practicing their videography skills in the field during digital training on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus. (Photo: Michael Wong/Cronkite School)
Top college journalism students from across the country are at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication for 10 days of in-depth training as part of a digital journalism internship program through the Dow Jones News Fund.
Eighteen journalism students are spending May 16-25 on the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus for rigorous multimedia training before heading to paid, full-time summer internships at various media outlets including Newsday, CBS News, The Arizona Republic and Storyful, among others.
Four Cronkite students are participating in the DJNF program this year. Ellie Nakamoto-White, Victor Ren and Christopher Scragg are refining their digital media skills at the Cronkite School. Veronica Graff is spending her summer residency in the business reporting program at New York University, which is led by Paul Glader, associate professor at The King’s College and an award-winning former Wall Street Journal reporter.
“It has been an honor to participate in DJNF,” said Ren, a Cronkite senior. “Not only have I built relationships with peers who come from all over the country, but I have learned an invaluable skill set that I will be able to implement in my career moving forward.”
The Cronkite School is the only institution in the country serving as a DJNF-sponsored digital training center for students. Nearly 100 students have participated since the school began hosting the program in 2013. Four other universities offer instruction in the areas of business reporting, data journalism, news editing and sports editing.
The digital program includes sessions on social media analytics, audience engagement, SEO headline writing, basic computer coding, visual and audio editing, and podcast production. Students get instruction from prominent media professionals from The Arizona Republic, ABC15 KNXV, 12 News KPNX, CBS5 KPHO and The Wall Street Journal.
“I think DJNF has further solidified that there’s a future in journalism,” said Danae Bucci, a junior at Northeastern University. “We often hear that journalism is dying off, but everyone who has led sessions for this program has taught us what we need to do to preserve our craft.”
The student will put their skills to the test at the end of the program to create a content-rich website on booming development in downtown Phoenix.
Mike Wong, the Cronkite Career Service director, said students in the program build skills and add to their portfolios, giving them a leg up in the job market.
“As companies seek new talent and skill sets, our role is to educate and prepare students, giving them a deeper knowledge of the tools and techniques they can use to succeed in their internships and in their careers,” he said.
Launched in 1960, the DJNF summer internship program supports five training sites at leading journalism schools. This year, 79 undergraduate and graduate students were selected from more than 779 applicants for the program. After their internships, students returning to college receive $1,500 scholarships.
The Dow Jones News Fund is a nonprofit organization supported by the Dow Jones Foundation, Dow Jones and Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal and other news industry organizations. Its mission is to encourage high school and college students to pursue journalism careers by sponsoring workshops and providing internships. It also offers ongoing training and grant-funded programs for educators.
The 2019 Dow Jones digital media interns and their assignments are:
Jade Allen
Lane College
Connecticut Public Radio
Bernadette Berdychowski
The King’s College
SourceMedia
Amanda Blanco
Columbia University
Newsday
Danae Bucci
Northeastern University
Colorado Springs Gazette
Brooke Eberle
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Arizona Republic
Layla Ferris
University of Central Florida
Storyful
Tre’Vaughn Howard
University of Miami
CBS “This Morning”
Shuran Huang
Syracuse University
National Public Radio
Bryauna Kralik
Virginia Commonwealth University
The Palm Beach Post
Faith Lucas
Ohio University
Fox 5 Atlanta
Ellie Nakamoto-White
Arizona State University
Hawaii News Now
Alexandria Ng
University of Florida
Hawaii News Now
Mary Ramsey
University of South Carolina
The Arizona Republic
Victor Ren
Arizona State University
Austin American-Statesman
Christopher Scragg
Arizona State University
AccuWeather
Brooke Stanley
California Lutheran University
International Center for Journalists
Bayliss Wagner
Swarthmore College
Philadelphia Inquirer
Sorayah Zahir
University of Texas at Arlington
The Wall Street Journal