Last year, TFAS launched a new initiative to expand our efforts in training the next generation of responsible, honorable journalists. One year in, TFAS Center for Excellence in Journalism Director Ryan Wolfe gives an overview of the program’s impact.
Share an overview of the new program, the Student Journalism Association and how it fits under the umbrella of the Center for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ) at TFAS?
The Student Journalism Association supports independent, heterodox student publications at select colleges and universities and individual student journalists at colleges across the country. We provide them with funding, training, and internship opportunities to help them launch their career in the media. These efforts are the main way we engage college students at the Center for Excellence in Journalism.
What was the goal of launching the Student Journalism Association (SJA)?
Our goal is to identify and develop the next generation of journalistic talent. By supporting independent student publications, we hope to increase the number of students at elite colleges that might consider working in journalism. By working with talented individual student journalists, we can help them become better writers and get plugged into career opportunities that allow them to pursue a journalism career.
What are the benefits for students in joining the association?
Member publications can receive up to $15,000 of support, which they can earn by hitting certain benchmarks related to their staff size, the number of articles published, the percentage of articles including original reporting, meeting frequency, and the number of active freshmen. They are visited an average of four times a year by our program team, and we conduct trainings related to topics like news reporting and editorial management while we are on campus. Member publications also send at least two members to a regional conference each year. Individual members receive access to mentorship groups and can nominate themselves for our collegiate journalism awards. They are also invited to attend our regional conferences. All students get to take part in our online events, where students learn reporting and writing skills from expert journalists and get the opportunity to interview newsmakers for their publication. All students can also receive fully funded scholarships to TFAS’s Summer Journalism Program.
What has the TFAS Student Journalism Association accomplished since its launch? How many campuses or students are part of the Student Journalism Association so far?
Since the Student Journalism Association launched last fall, we have provided funding to 18 student publications and conducted over 50 campus visits to train student reporters and help them improve the operations of their publications. We’ve helped launch two new student publications at New York University and the University of Pennsylvania, the NYU Review and The Penn Post. We’ve hosted three regional conferences where our students were able to learn from journalists, many of whom are TFAS alumni, at The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Boston Globe, New York Post, National Review, The Dispatch, Reason, the Washington Free Beacon, and Commentary. In just two semesters, we’ve seen a strong increase in the number of articles, staff size, and active freshmen at publications that are participating in our program. Over 400 students are involved in our program, including both publications and individual members.
during the Student Journalism Association Regional Conference in New York City.
How does the TFAS Student Journalism Association plan to expand its reach and impact in 2024?
In the next academic year, we’re planning to expand to support 22 student publications and significantly increase our individual membership. We’ll be rolling out mentorship opportunities for individual members, new trainings and resources for our campus publications, expanding our regional conferences, and offering more scholarships to the TFAS Summer Program.
What is TFAS’s long-term vision for the Student Journalism Association?
The long-term vision is to have an SJA publication at almost every top national university and liberal arts college in the United States and have every independently minded student journalist in the country as a part of our network as an individual member. We hope to have hundreds more students as a part of our talent pipeline and have many of them going on to work in the media.
What specific qualities, skills and experiences is TFAS aiming to recruit in students interested in joining the Student Journalism Association?
We look for students who are committed to objective news coverage in their reporting and pushing back on the dominant ideas on campus in their opinion writing. Anyone who has written for their campus newspaper or has an interest in becoming a writer in the future can be a part of our program.
This spring, TFAS has held three Regional Student Journalism Conferences. What are the key objectives and goals of organizing these conferences for the Student Journalism Association?
Our regional conferences were an opportunity for students to engage with experts in news reporting and opinion writing in a seminar-style environment. Attendees had the opportunity to learn from Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal, Eliana Johnson of the Washington Free Beacon, and Steve Hayes of The Dispatch in an intimate environment. We also were able to foster more collaboration between students through story workshops and simulation activities.