The Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT has introduced a brand new fellowship program that can present college students from traditionally Black faculties and universities (HBCU) with coaching, mentorship, and early-career help to report on science, well being, and environmental points. The fellowship’s inaugural cohort will encompass 10 extremely achieved journalism college students representing Florida A&M College, Hampton College, Howard College, Morgan State College, and North Carolina A&T State College.
The HBCU Science Journalism Fellowship will launch this June with a week-long science journalism summer season camp at MIT, the place fellows will be taught from award-winning science journalists, meet editors from main science publications, and develop their abilities in hands-on workshops. Over the next yr, every fellow will probably be mentored by knowledgeable science journalist, who will work with them to pitch tales to nationwide and regional science publications.
By means of the initiative, the Knight Science Journalism Program goals to open new pathways right into a specialty space of journalism that has change into more and more necessary within the public sphere. An overarching purpose is to assist make science journalism extra consultant of the communities it serves.
Named to the inaugural HBCU Science Journalism Fellowship class are: Mykal Bailey (Howard College), Jonathan Charles (Florida A&M College), Christén Davis (North Carolina A&T State College), Zoe Earle (Morgan State College), Jordyn Isaacs (Hampton College), Steven Matthews Jr. (North Carolina A&T State College), Sabrina McCrear (Howard College), Trinity Polk (Hampton College), Skylar Rowley (Florida A&M College), and Utrurah Whitley (Morgan State College). The fellows’ various reporting pursuits vary from astronomy and synthetic intelligence to girls’s well being and environmental justice.
“We’re thrilled to have the ability to welcome this spectacular group of scholars to MIT,” says Knight Science Journalism Program Affiliate Director Ashley Good. “They’ve an unimaginable wealth of expertise, talent, and dedication — and immense potential to do science reporting that basically impacts individuals’s on a regular basis lives.”
The Knight Science Journalism Program labored intently with journalism deans and school on the 5 taking part colleges to develop the fellowship idea and to pick the inaugural cohort.
The HBCU Science Journalism Fellowship provides to a collection of efforts by the Knight Science Journalism Program to maintain and enhance science journalism within the public curiosity, together with its flagship academic-year fellowship for mid-career journalists, the Sharon Begley Science Reporting Fellowship for early-career journalists (a collaboration with the Boston-based publication STAT), and the Fellowship for Advancing Science Journalism in Africa and the Center East.
The 2024-25 HBCU Science Journalism Fellowship class
Mykal Bailey is a sophomore at Howard College with reporting pursuits together with environmental justice and agricultural science.
Jonathan Charles is a sophomore at Florida A&M College with reporting pursuits together with environmental science and AI.
Christén Davis is a junior at North Carolina A&T State College with reporting pursuits together with worldwide economics and infectious illness.
Zoe Earle is a junior at Morgan State College with reporting pursuits together with astronomy and zoology.
Jordyn Isaacs is a sophomore at Hampton College with reporting pursuits together with AI and environmental justice.
Steven Matthews Jr. is a junior at North Carolina A&T State College with reporting pursuits together with meteorology and pure disasters.
Sabrina McCrear is a junior at Howard College with reporting pursuits together with girls’s well being and genetics.
Trinity Polk is a sophomore at Hampton College with reporting pursuits together with local weather change and public well being.
Skylar Rowley is a junior at Florida A&M College with reporting pursuits together with animal science and toddler mortality.
Utrurah Whitley is a senior at Morgan State College with reporting pursuits together with data know-how.
The Knight Science Journalism Program, established at MIT in 1983, is the world’s main science journalism fellowship program. Greater than 400 main science journalists from six continents have graduated from this system, which provides a course of research at MIT, Harvard College, and different main establishments within the Boston space, in addition to specialised coaching workshops, seminars, and science-focused discipline journeys for all attendees. KSJ additionally publishes an award-winning science journal, Undark, and provides programming to journalists on matters starting from science enhancing to fact-checking.
