Fellowships
Explore open fellowship opportunities in media and communication.
Ready to get your career started but unsure where to begin? Apply for a fellowship program. These programs are designed to help early-career journalists develop a strong foundation for a successful career. Fellowship programs are often full-time paid positions that provide mentorship and guidance. View upcoming recruiter visits.
National Archives Foundation
Deadline: Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Wage: Paid
Instructions:
The Cokie Roberts Research Fund for Women’s History will support one to three annual fellowships for emerging and established historians, journalists, authors, or graduate students who perform and publish new research for the general public to elevate women’s history using the records held by the National Archives.
Recipients of the fellowship will perform original document research from the National Archives on women’s history for a published book, article, essay, film, short series, or art piece developed for the general public.
Please click the link to learn more about the fellowship and to apply.
Amplifier
Deadline: Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023
Wage: Paid
Instructions:
Our inaugural Amplifier Fellows class will focus on threats to democratic institutions in the United States as democracy and voter rights are under attack in the run-up to the 2024 U.S. Presidential election. The first class of Fellows will include at least three photographers and photo-based artists, each awarded $20,000. We will add to this core group as fundraising progresses in 2024 to launch rapid response grants and assignments throughout the year. Applications are open Nov 8 - Dec 20, 2023.
Though nonpartisan, this project is not about simply bearing witness. Amplifier Fellows will be expected to wield lenses and light, composition and concept, as tools of transformation. Our aim is not merely to observe democracy's trials from the sidelines, but to engage deeply, to utilize our art to reinforce and protect the pillars of our democracy from decay and outright attack.
What distinguishes the Amplifier Fellowship is our unique distribution strategies for disseminating visual messages. We have commissioned more than 1,000 visual artists. Each of our campaigns reaches over 20 million viewers. We've distributed tens of millions of pieces of physical art and provided free teaching tools to over a million student’s classrooms across the United States through our Education network. Collaborations with our established network of artists and nonprofit partners, will help further project our Amplifier Fellows' work across a vast canvas.
Please click the link to learn more about the fellowship and to apply.
UC Berkeley
Deadline: Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024
Wage: Paid
Instructions:
The Ferriss – UC Berkeley Psychedelic Journalism Fellowship offers ten $10,000 reporting grants per year to journalists reporting in-depth print and audio stories on the science, policy, business and culture of this new era of psychedelics. In addition to underwriting individual stories, the Fellowship aims to establish and nurture a new generation of journalists covering the frontlines of this rapidly changing field. We’re looking for big, underreported, narratively compelling stories placed in rich political, economic, scientific, and cultural contexts. We are committed to supporting journalists from diverse backgrounds and of all nationalities. The fellowship is a project of the U.C. Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
Please click the link to learn more about the fellowship and to apply.
Journalism & Women Symposium (JAWS)
Deadline: Friday, Dec. 8, 2023
Wage: Paid
Instructions:
JAWS Health Journalism Fellowship is a unique opportunity for emerging and early career journalists who have an interest in and passion for upping their health care reporting skills.
To improve access, quality and efficiency in our health care system, consumers need accurate, accessible and useful information devoid of misinformation or jargon. A rigorous, science-based but far more inclusive, empathetic and compelling approach to health care reporting is needed.
The current health landscape means that journalists in every beat have become de facto health journalists, making it the perfect moment to raise professional awareness, elevate health care reporting, and increase diversity and representation of journalists. By training more journalists and by diversifying the reporting pool, we’re certain to get better and more inclusive health care reporting for our communities.
With generous support from The Commonwealth Fund, the Journalism & Women Symposium (JAWS) is pleased to offer a unique opportunity to early career women journalists and journalists new to the health beat, who have an interest in and passion for upping their health care reporting skills.
In keeping with JAWS’ mission, this fellowship aims to advance the professional growth and empowerment of women journalists in health care reporting by giving them the training and support to tell stories about diverse experiences and cultures.
JAWS will train and support eight early career journalists (less than 7 years’ professional reporting experience) or those new to the health beat who will complete an intensive project on a key component of health care.
The fellowship is open to both staff and freelance journalists. Freelancers should pre-pitch their story ideas to one or more media outlets and obtain tentative approval from the appropriate editor(s) in writing as part of their application. The long- and short- form stories are NOT required to publish/air in the same outlet.
Application deadline is December 8, 2023 and fellows will be selected by December 31, 2023.
Please click the link to learn more about the position and to apply!
University of North Carolina
Deadline: Friday, Dec. 8, 2023
Wage: Paid
Instructions:
The CBC-UNC Diversity Fellowship Program is an intensive hands-on workshop led by professionals at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the University of North Carolina journalism faculty in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The program is for college seniors or graduate students within six months of graduation and pursuing broadcast careers as:
- Producers
- Reporters
- Photojournalists
- Web Editors
This is a highly competitive fellowship for 12 top students. Fellows whose universities are within 250 miles of Raleigh will receive a $500 stipend for travel, meals and lodging. Fellows between 251 and 500 miles will receive a $750 stipend. Those whose universities are farther than 501 miles from Raleigh will receive a $1000 stipend.
During the five-day workshop, you may expect to:
- Produce reports and newscasts in state-of-the-art facilities
- Create clips for your professional reel
- Make invaluable industry contacts
Please click the link to learn more and to apply.
FASPE
Deadline: Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024
Wage: Paid
Instructions:
FASPE Journalism applicants must fit into one of the following two categories: 1) have some journalistic experience (whether in a college newsroom or otherwise) and be enrolled in a graduate program of any kind and planning to work as a journalist; OR 2) be working as a journalist with less than 10 years of professional experience.
Preference will be given to candidates who have journalistic work that has been published or aired by a recognized news organization.
Applicants must be 42 or younger as of the application deadline.
FASPE seeks Fellows who are interested in engaging in discussions with their co-Fellows and faculty, and who have the intellectual and emotional maturity to unpack difficult and controversial issues responsibly and respectfully in small group settings. FASPE seeks Journalism Fellows with diverse interests and backgrounds, including those pursuing careers as reporters, editors, photojournalists, documentarians, or other forms of storytelling in local, national, and international contexts. FASPE selects its Fellows on the basis of their academic background, personal and professional experiences, capacity for leadership and ability to contribute to the program and the alumni community. All applications are welcome and reviewed.
Description: FASPE is an intensive, two-week study program in professional ethics and ethical leadership taking place in Berlin, Krakow, and Oswiecim (the location of the former Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz). FASPE Journalism approaches the study of professional ethics by examining the actions and choices of German and international journalists in executing and/or enabling Nazi policies. FASPE then draws on this historical example to help Journalism Fellows grasp their role and responsibility as individuals with influence in their communities and to lead them to identify and confront the ethical issues currently facing journalists and media institutions at large.
FASPE Journalism has developed its own curriculum of small group discussions, case studies, and lectures that are connected to the history and historical sites the program explores. Faculty leadership is provided by recognized academics, practicing professionals, historians and ethicists.
Interdisciplinary work and exchanges are also a core component of the fellowship program and the FASPE alumni network. FASPE Journalism Fellows travel with FASPE Medical and FASPE Seminary Fellows, allowing Fellows in each program to benefit from cross-disciplinary perspectives and discussions.
FASPE Journalism is neither a Holocaust studies course nor a genocide prevention program. Rather, the curriculum is designed to challenge Fellows to critically examine constructs, current developments, and issues that raise ethical concerns for individual journalists in the contemporary settings in which they work. FASPE seeks Fellows who are interested in engaging in discussions with their co-Fellows and faculty and who have the intellectual and emotional maturity to unpack difficult and controversial issues responsibly and respectfully in small group settings.
FASPE selects its Fellows on the basis of their academic background, personal and professional experiences, capacity for leadership, and ability to contribute to the program and the alumni community.
All applications are welcome and reviewed.
Mountain State Spotlight
Wage: Paid
Instructions:
Mountain State Spotlight, in partnership with The Diversity Pledge Institute, is excited to announce the first year of a new fellowship program aimed at giving aspiring journalists of color or from other marginalized communities a paid opportunity to learn new skills in Charleston, West Virginia.
Journalism, both in West Virginia and nationwide, has a dire need for journalists with a more diverse range of backgrounds and experiences. This fellowship, funded in part by The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, is designed to prepare and support the next generation of West Virginia journalists to join our newsroom and perhaps later, others around the state.
As a full-time member of our staff for the duration of the fellowship, you’ll work with our editors to publish several more in-depth stories on an area of interest. You’ll also learn new journalism skills and techniques from your colleagues, including interviewing, reporting, researching, data analysis and filing successful Freedom of Information Act requests.
We are looking for someone with the curiosity and interest to be an entry-level journalist, but formal experience in newsrooms or a journalism degree is not required. The ideal candidate will be a current student or recent graduate with an interest in local news and accountability reporting. Preference will be given to candidates with ties to West Virginia, Appalachia, or another rural place. This fellowship will be customized for the successful candidate and could last anywhere from eight to 20 weeks.
- $20/hour for a 40-hour work week during the agreed-upon fellowship period.
- Benefits, including 75% company-paid health insurance and 401K.
- $450/month housing stipend — relocation to the Charleston area for the duration of the fellowship is required.
- Flexible work schedule. Some weekend and evening hours will be required.
Click the link to learn more about the position and to apply.