Successful Internship Program Goes into Second Year Backed by Knight Foundation Grant
The City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism will extend its innovative summer internship program through summer 2009, thanks to a $250,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The CUNY J-School requires a summer internship of each member of its diverse student body as part of its basic journalism curriculum. Because many news organizations don’t pay their interns, the Knight grant guarantees that every student will get up to $3,000 if they get an unpaid or low paying internship.
“We’re very grateful to Knight Foundation for again supporting our summer internship program. This generous grant assures that all of our students will be able to take on meaningful internships that often lead to permanent jobs,” said Journalism School Dean Stephen Shepard.
“Research has shown that journalism students need internships and work samples to get jobs in the field, yet many journalism schools still do not require them,” said Eric Newton, vice president of journalism programs at Knight Foundation. “This grant will prove the concept that internships are essential by demonstrating their worth at a new journalism school in the media capital of the world.”
The internship program successfully launched last summer thanks to a previous grant from Knight Foundation. The 48 students in the first class interned for a variety of media organizations such as small community and ethnic publications and broadcast outlets as well as major networks, web sites, newspapers and magazines. They all did hands-on editorial work: research, reporting, writing, editing, fact-checking, producing, shooting video and photos, gathering audio, and coming up with story ideas.
About two-thirds of the first class, which graduated last December, are employed full-time in journalism, and nearly all the rest are working or freelancing part-time. Of the student body, about a third received offers from the news organizations where they did their summer internships.
The current class of 47 students is gearing up for another summer of challenging and rewarding internships. Based on last year’s success, several students have already received summer 2008 internships with media organizations that participated last year. They include ABC News, BusinessWeek, NY1 News, the New York Daily News, the New York Times online video department, and WNYC Radio.
New partners include Telegraph.co.uk, the digital newsroom of London’s Daily Telegraph. Other media outlets that have created an internship specifically for a CUNY J-School student include ESPN Publishing, The Associated Press in Chile, the Nigerian Television Authority, and Diario Libre, a daily broadsheet and Web site in the Dominican Republic.
The summer interns will receive on-site supervision as well as faculty mentoring, and will earn three hours of credit toward their master of arts degree. The school will also invite guest speakers throughout the summer to talk to the interns about journalism careers.
The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism opened in August 2006. Its rigorous three-semester Master of Arts program provides students from diverse backgrounds with a high quality graduate journalism education that will prepare them for successful careers in online media, print or broadcast journalism. As the first publicly supported graduate school of journalism in the Northeast, the CUNY program creates opportunities for budding journalists who otherwise could not afford such an education, including minority and immigrant students.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Since 1950 the foundation has granted nearly $400 million to advance journalism quality and freedom of expression. Knight Foundation focuses on ideas and projects that create transformational change.
For more information, contact Ellen Walterscheid, director of Career Services, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, 646-758-7732, ellen.walterscheid@journalism.cuny.edu.