In a significant commitment toward fostering diversity and inclusion in San Joaquin Valley journalism, the Institute for Media and Public Trust at Fresno State was awarded a $201,000 grant to continue its visionary Journalists of Color training program. The California Endowment grant will help fortify the ongoing success of its pioneering journalism training program.
“Journalism is key to informing our community, and to reach a diverse community we must have journalists who are as diverse as California,” said Sarah Reyes, chief communications officer for The California Endowment. “The work the Institute for Media and Public Trust at Fresno State is doing will train youth journalists from diverse and marginalized communities to be the journalists of the future who will inform the Valley for generations.”
The program is currently training 18 student journalists and is now seeking applications for a fourth cohort of aspiring journalists. The students are paid $300 monthly during the academic year and can stay in the program for up to five years, from their senior year in high school through four years of college. Students write and create multimedia news projects for The kNOw, a platform that has been helping train young journalists since 2006 to tell stories about their communities.
Kathleen Schock, a Fresno City College journalism instructor and Journalists of Color steering committee member said the program offers a “life-changing educational opportunity for local students” and gives them a gateway into a journalism career.
“As the program continues to expand, we are building a pipeline of journalists who are well-trained, experienced, diverse and ready to tell the stories of the Central Valley with nuance and cultural sensitivity,” Schock said.
The Journalists of Color program was established by the Institute for Media and Public Trust at Fresno State, and includes the journalism programs at Fresno City College, Fresno State and The kNOw Youth Media as partners. The kNOw works under the Youth Leadership Institute.
Jim Boren, director of the Institute for Media and Public Trust, said the latest grant will be a financial cornerstone for the Journalists of Color program.
“This grant will help ensure the program’s success well into the future and will enable us to not only support individual talents but also build a lasting journalism infrastructure that fosters a rich tapestry of voices in the San Joaquin Valley,” Boren said.
Dr. Honora Chapman, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at Fresno State, praised the financial commitment of The California Endowment in supporting diverse journalism in the San Joaquin Valley.
“We are so grateful to The California Endowment for this generous grant enabling Jim Boren’s visionary Journalists of Color program to flourish,” Chapman said. “Thanks to this support, Fresno State will continue amplifying the voices of the next generation of ethical journalists who will surely strengthen our Valley and nation with their stories.”
Program manager Johnsen Del Rosario said the students in the program are focused on different areas of journalism based on the cohort they started in. For example, Cohort 1 is focused on audio/radio journalism and podcast creation; Cohort 2 is working on broadcast journalism and video production; Cohort 3 is working on digital and print journalism. They are covering a variety of news topics, and their reporting trips have taken them around the Valley and to Sacramento, he said. Two students were able to interview First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom at an event at the Capitol on the impact of social media on the mental health of young people.
“They are working on community news, covering stories on education, politics, economics, mental health and culture,” Del Rosario said. “Through this program, the young journalists are networking with news industries and learning from media professionals throughout the Central Valley, in the place they hope to start their careers.”
This is the second California Endowment grant for the Journalists of Color program. The program also is supported through funding from the James B. McClatchy Foundation, Microsoft and the Institute for Media and Public Trust.
Interested students should contact Johnsen Del Rosario at jdelrosario@yli.org or 562.400.2992, or Daniel Gonzalez at dgonzalez@yli.org or 559.457.9486.
