ELi Announces 2019 Summer Youth Journalism Program

ELi will be holding its third annual Summer Youth Journalism Program intensive two-week-long educational program in August 2019. This program follows on two highly successful years and provides area youth, ages 15-22, an opportunity to learn journalistic ethics and practices and to earn a $250 educational stipend.

About the program: The course, led by journalism educator Cody Harrell, will lead students in understanding of basic and advanced techniques of journalistic writing, reporting, and ethics. The program will be free for students accepted, and students will receive a $250 stipend for participation in the program.

In addition, students will be paid as reporters to produce published reports for ELi’s readers. Students are expected to produce a piece to be published at the end of the program. (Reporting by ELi is paid per published report.)

Topics in the two-week introductory program include first-amendment law, professional journalistic ethics, news hierarchy, interview techniques, concise writing, Associated Press styling, interpreting legal documents, the Freedom of Information Act in theory and practice, basic photojournalism, and more.

By the end of this two-week program, students may be phased into the regular ELi reporting team to assist in local investigative journalism and community news reporting.

Above: The 2018 Summer Youth Journalism Program participants.

Community members and journalists will be invited as guests to speak on topics that the class will explore as they relate to the field and status of journalism.

Rolling deadline for applications: Applications will be processed until the August program reaches its maximum capacity of eight students. This means that interested students should apply ASAP. (We will announce at this page if the program is full.)

Who can apply: We are accepting applications from people aged 15-22 who are interested in journalism, whether or not they are interested in pursuing a career in the field. Applicants do not need to live in East Lansing or to be enrolled in any school to apply and participate.

Above: The 2017 Summer Youth Journalism Program participants.

About the schedule: The program will run Monday-Friday, August 5-16, 2019, with three hours of group meetings per day at the East Lansing Public Library. (We are asking applicants to indicate time availability on their applications, but we anticipate that the three-hour meetings will run midday.) Students will also work in small groups and one-on-one with Harrell.

About the journalism educator: Cody Harrell (pictured below) is a Journalism and English teacher at East Lansing High School with a degree in Journalism from MSU. ELHS students who have worked with him praise him as a student-centered, engaging, effective educator. While at MSU, he specialized in graphic design, publication design and web design. He also earned accolades from the Journalism Education Association, the Society for News Design and the School of Journalism at MSU.

Harrell has been a student, adviser, mentor, teacher at the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association summer journalism camp held on MSU’s campus. When not occupied advocating for student first amendment rights and working with the best and brightest of tomorrow’s journalism, he enjoys training for marathons and singing in his barbershop quartet.

How to apply: Download the application from this link.

How to support ELi's work: Contribute to the Summer Youth Journalism Program by making a financial donation in support!