Fresno-area students of color can earn $300 monthly while studying journalism. Here’s how

This story is part of the Central Valley News Collaborative — a bilingual, community journalism project funded by the Central Valley Community Foundation and with technology and training support from Microsoft Corp. The collaboration includes The Fresno Bee, Valley Public Radio, Vida en el Valle, Radio Bilingüe and the Institute for Media & Public Trust at Fresno State.

Calling aspiring journalists of color: Applications are now open for a new program that offers high school students mentorship and a paid pathway to a journalism degree.

The program — which includes Fresno City College, California State University, Fresno and Fresno-based youth media organization The kNOw Youth Media — aims to build a pipeline of journalists of color who could work for San Joaquin Valley media outlets following graduation.

Selected students will earn $300 per month during each academic year, as they receive training to prepare them for media careers and create multi-media projects for The kNOw. They will also receive academic support and the opportunity to network with community members, including local journalists and the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce. Students can participate in the program for up to five years.

“This is an opportunity to ensure that the next generation of journalists are not only ready, with the requisite training and skill sets, but are coming into the profession with backgrounds and histories that are traditionally not as represented in newsrooms,” said Kathleen Schock, a journalism instructor at Fresno City College and host of Valley Edition on Valley Public Radio.

“I know that as a journalist of color, there were a lot of times in my career where I would approach a story with more nuance, or a different lens, than my white colleagues,” she added.

The program is a unique solution to an entrenched problem.

Many local newsrooms have struggled to ensure that their staff members are representative of their communities — in terms of race and ethnicity, as well as gender, religion, sexuality and economic status. An estimated 77% of newsroom employees nationwide are non-Hispanic whites, the Pew Research Center reported in 2018.

Jim Boren observed a similar problem locally when he was The Fresno Bee’s executive editor. Black people — who make up about 7% of the city of Fresno’s population — are under-represented at local media outlets, he said. Boren, now the executive director of the Fresno State Institute for Media and Public Trust, said the 2020 murder of George Floyd, and the nationwide calls for racial justice that followed, underscored the need for the program.

“We must have journalists who can reflect the voices of the entire community, and not just the voices that have been the traditional ones that media outlets have sought out,” Boren said in an email to The Bee. “How many stories have news sites missed over the years because their newsrooms did not reflect the diversity of their communities?”

Starting in the upcoming academic year, the program intends to provide Black students and other students of color with training and support so they can tell deeper, more nuanced stories about the San Joaquin Valley. Local journalists and members of the program’s steering committee —including Schock, Boren and Dypna Ugwu-Oju, editor of the Fresnoland Lab at The Fresno Bee — are helping to build the curriculum and will participate in the training sessions, said Kody Stoebig, program manager for The kNOw.

“Newsrooms across the country are still very heavily filled with white journalists,” said Stoebig, who is also a member of the steering committee overseeing the program. “We’re trying to break that cycle and start early.”

The program also intends to remove the barriers that prevent young people of color from securing their first jobs in newsrooms or other fields that value strong writing, storytelling and communication skills. One of the ways it aims to do this is by providing the monthly stipend, underscoring the value of the work and making it easier for students to pursue journalism while also studying and helping support their families.

The program’s initial funding comes through grants from the James B. McClatchy Foundation and The California Endowment, and from a contribution from the Institute for Media and Public Trust.

“Anybody who is interested in storytelling and communications, anybody who is concerned that their communities are not represented accurately and fairly in the media, this is an opportunity for them to gain experience, gain training, that we hope will lead to a career in journalism, but could lead to practically any direction,” Schock said.

Incoming high school seniors and college freshmen can apply for the program by visiting bit.ly/journalistsofcolor. Applications are due in mid-July. The program will accept up to eight students in its first year and will add eight more each year.