The Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism announces call for entries for its second annual competition for three year-long fellowships. They are open to all working journalists, but preference will be given to graduates of UC Berkeley's master's program in journalism. The deadline for applications is April 1.
Funded by the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation, The Einhorn Family Charitable Trust, Scott and Jennifer Fearon and Ian and Rita Isaacs, the fellowships will be awarded in May 2008. They are open to all working journalists, but preference will be given to graduates of UC Berkeley's master's program in journalism.
Applicants will be chosen based on their qualifications as well as their potential, and on the proposed areas of investigation they intend to pursue during the year-long program. There are no educational prerequisites. The school’s Investigative Reporting Program (IRP) and the program’s advisory board will administer fellowships. The board is comprised of representatives from some of the nation's top media outlets.
The graduate program in investigative reporting in the coming year will focus on corporate corruption, particularly the way some U.S. companies operate overseas. Entries for the 2008-2009 fellowships are urged to present detailed areas of inquiry within this broad subject area. Proposals could include print and broadcast components as well as multimedia projects for the Internet.
Fellows will be provided with office space, phones, basic expenses and funds for travel. Their base will be the Investigative Reporting Program office in Berkeley, in space provided by the Reva and David Logan Foundation. Proposals should include an estimate for travel expenses to complete a project. No housing or relocation supplements are provided.
Fellows are expected to refrain from outside journalistic projects, and use the Berkeley offices as their base of operations during the fellowship.
In addition to regular interaction with the faculty of the journalism school and the instructors in investigative reporting, the fellows will participate in a weekly seminar in investigative reporting taught by Bergman and Robert Gunnison, the journalism school's director of school affairs.
Fellows will be salaried employees of the University of California with the job classification of staff research associate II and with an annual salary of approximately $45,000, with health benefits. They also will be able to audit UC Berkeley classes and use campus research facilities.
The fellowships have been established to augment an endowment created by the Reva and David Logan Foundation that funds a permanent program in investigative reporting at the journalism school. That endowment and related programs and scholarships are also funded by gifts from Robert Bishop, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund, the Pearson Foundation (UK) and the Gladys P. & Alfredo I. Rodriguez Fund.
The deadline for fellowship applications for the academic year 2008-2009 is April 1. This year's recipients will be announced on May 17. The fellows' year-long tenure will begin on Sept. 1.
The application can be found here .
For additional details on the fellowship program, contact IRP Deputy
Director Marlena Telvick at (510) 643-1299 or e-mail
investigativereportingprogram@berkeley.edu.
