Features:
How people used the Scholarships+ program in 2022
We’ll have more money to give out for professional development next year—here are some ideas on how you might use it!
The Scholarships+ program is in a sweet spot for us as a community organization. We help peers build the connections and career skills they need to create a more equitable future for journalism. Money that opens up access to professional development can do both!
We’re big believers in experiential learning, so this program focuses on participatory events, workshops, and coaching, where people build relationships alongside new skills. Here’s everything that participants received stipends to be a part of in 2022:
- Professional journalism and affinity-group conferences like NICAR, ONA, the NLGJA national convention, the Midwest Journalism Conference, Media Party 2022 in Buenos Aires, the LION publishers sustainability conference, the International Press Institute’s 2022 World Congress, the International Journalism Festival, Solutions Journalism Summit, the AHCJ Health Journalism Conference, Dataharvest, the Future of Local News 2022 summit, the Collaborative Journalism Summit
- Skill-building programs like IRE’s Data Journalism Bootcamp, the Impact Narratives Using Data workshop, design workshops at the School for Poetic Computation, and Google certificate programs in project management, analytics and UX design
- Leadership development through facilitator training with AORTA, management training through Managing to Change the World, Stanford’s Fundamentals of Product Management course, and the Women in Journalism Workshop at RJI
- Online trainings in front-end development and JavaScript through SuperHi, SQL and Python through Code Academy Pro, Bellingcat’s Online Workshop on information verification and social media research, training courses through AIR Media
- Focused 1-on–1 work with an individual career coach, and with Freedom of the Press Foundation to set up a secure Signal tipline
Who we were able to help in 2022
Many journalists work with organizations that can’t or won’t make funding available for professional development. This program prioritizes applications from communities that are underrepresented in journalism, and we ask applicants for a little bit of demographic information so we can hold ourselves accountable to that goal.
In 2022, we gave out 52 stipends:
- 69% went to people of color
- 81% went to women
We want to give you money in 2023
This recap (just like this post about 2021) is part of our commitment to transparency and trust in our work—and we also hope it’s a source of ideas for community members who want to keep building their own networks and careers.
If you’re starting to think about programs you’d like to take part in, or colleagues who you’d love to share this kind of opportunity with, good news: Scholarships+ will be back next year!
Applications for the next round of Scholarships+ will open in January 2023. If you’d like to get notifications about programs like this one, Twitter and our newsletter are great ways to stay up-to-date.
Credits
-
Ryan Pitts
Ryan Pitts is a developer and journalist in Spokane, WA. He’s the director of network development for OpenNews, a nonprofit organization that helps newsroom developers, designers, and data analysts collaborate on technology and support each other as a community. (OpenNews also publishes this website.) Ryan is a board member and developer at Census Reporter, and was the senior editor for digital media at The Spokesman-Review.
