|
AAJA’s VOICES program is a rare opportunity for college students to develop reporting and leadership skills under the tutelage of industry professionals.
A cohort of 15-17 students participate in pre-convention training that will include interactive online courses, and are assigned stories covering the journalism industry and AAPI community. Finished works are then published on the Voices site at voices.aaja.org. This innovative opportunity, which celebrates its 30th year in 2020, trains students and professionals before and during AAJA’s annual convention.
The Voices 2021 program faces a unique challenge with the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the uncertainty, the Voices program is currently being redeveloped where the entirety of student projects and programming will be fully remote. We’re currently working on the 2021 program and will post details soon. If you’d like to stay up to date on all things AAJA, sign up for our newsletter!
PURPOSE
Voices serves as a multimedia journalism training fellowship for college and graduate students, as well as a leadership program for young journalists.
2021 PROGRAM
Due to the pandemic, Voices will be done fully remote this year. Our utmost priority is the safety and well-being of our student participants, and we will make decisions based on recommendations from public health and government authorities. We thank you for your interest.
Now in its 31st year, Voices is a student fellowship program that provides aspiring journalists with career-ready skills to succeed in the continually-evolving media landscape. At its core, the program’s mission is to help a diverse group of aspiring journalists understand how audiences engage with them, how communities view the work they produce, and how they can understand the impact their work has. By nurturing relationships between students and professional volunteers, Voices also gives students the opportunity to tap into mentors’ networks and begin their own.
This program is open to undergraduate and graduate students interested in journalism. We are looking for students who are interested in spending the summer producing a long-form, in-depth news project over the course of the summer. We want students who are excellent storytellers and who are interested in new technologies and story forms. Reporters, social media strategists, designers, developers, data engineers, podcasters, broadcasters, bloggers are all welcome to apply.
The program this year will consist of remote summer-long training and project work that begins in May and culminates from Wednesday, July 28 to Saturday, July 31.
See the eligibility requirements and application links below.
APPLICATION INFORMATION
Applicants must be enrolled as a full-time college student or recent graduate (within one year) with a serious interest in pursuing journalism as a career.
Applicants must be 18 years of age or older.
Applicants must not be a former participant in any AAJA Voices or college student projects with similar journalism organizations.
APPLY TO BE A VOICES 2021 FELLOW NOW
(Deadline: April 4, 2021)
APPLY TO BE A VOICES 2021 EDITOR (STAFF) NOW
(Deadline: March 28, 2021)
IMPACT
Students from the program’s 30-year history have gone on to work for news outlets like Bloomberg and the New York Times. Many Voices alumni return to the program as faculty and mentors; in 2013, Voices entered the third generation of students who came back as staff. Alumni also provide key networking opportunities and donate to the program. Find out what alumni from past programs are doing now!
