Two students at the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications have been selected by the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT to participate in a new fellowship that provides students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities with training, mentorship, and early career support to do reporting on science, health, and environmental issues. Jordyn Isaacs, and Trinity Polk are among the ten highly accomplished journalism students who have been named to the fellowship’s inaugural cohort, which is made up of students from Florida A&M University, Hampton University, Howard University, Morgan State University, and North Carolina A&T State University.
The fellowship will launch this June with a week-long science journalism summer camp at MIT, where fellows will learn from award-winning science journalists, meet editors from leading science publications, and develop their skills in hands-on workshops. Over the following year, each fellow will be mentored by a professional science journalist, who will work with them to pitch stories to national and regional science publications.
Through the initiative, the Knight Science Journalism Program aims to open new pathways into a specialty area of journalism that has become increasingly important in the public sphere. An overarching goal is to help make science journalism more representative of the communities it serves.
Named to the inaugural HBCU Science Journalism Fellowship class are: Jonathan Charles (Florida A&M University), Skylar Rowley (Florida A&M University), Jordyn Isaacs (Hampton University), Trinity Polk (Hampton University), Mykal Bailey (Howard University), Sabrina McCrear (Howard University), Zoe Earle (Morgan State University), Utrurah Whitley (Morgan State University), Christén Davis (North Carolina A&T State University), and Steven Matthews (North Carolina A&T State University). The fellows’ varied reporting interests range from astronomy and artificial intelligence to women’s health and environmental justice.
“We’re thrilled to be able to welcome this impressive group of students to MIT,” said Knight Science Journalism Program associate director Ashley Smart. “They have an incredible wealth of talent, skill, and dedication — and immense potential to do science reporting that really impacts people’s everyday lives.”
Administrators and faculty at the Scripps Howard School and other participating schools worked closely with the Knight Science Journalism Program to develop the fellowship concept and to select the inaugural cohort. The HBCU Science Journalism Fellowship is one of several efforts by the Knight Science Journalism Program to sustain and improve science journalism in the public interest, including 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 Middle East.
About the Knight Science Journalism Program
The Knight Science Journalism Program, established at MIT in 1983, is the world’s leading science journalism fellowship program. More than 400 leading science journalists from six continents have graduated from the program, which offers a course of study at MIT, Harvard University, and other leading institutions in the Boston area, as well as specialized training workshops, seminars, and science-focused field trips for all attendees. KSJ also publishes an award-winning science magazine, Undark, and offers programming to journalists on topics ranging from science editing to fact-checking. For More Information: https://ksj.mit.edu/
About Hampton University Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications
The Hampton University Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications is committed to preparing its students with a high-quality and well-rounded education for global careers in journalism and strategic communications. SHSJC emphasizes accuracy, balance, fairness, integrity and high ethical standards of excellence through journalism and strategic communications. The Scripps Howard education brand is internationally renowned to promote, support and enable aspiring journalists and mass communications professionals. For More Information: https://home.hamptonu.edu/shsjc/.