For the fourth year, The Poynter Institute is hosting a week-long segment of the Sports Journalism Institute, a nine-week internship program for college students who want to pursue sports journalism careers.
Under the supervision of Kenny Irby, Poynter’s visual journalism group leader and diversity director, the program has emerged as one of Poynter’s key student and sports outreach initiatives in the area of diversity. The program has become an effective springboard for students of diverse backgrounds — particularly people of color and women — to enter the sports journalism arena.
Students attending the program produce a newspaper that will be distributed at the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) convention in Pittsburgh later in June. This week, they are chronicling their time at Poynter on a blog, which you can read here.
After the program is completed, they will move on to paid internships at The Buffalo (N.Y.) News, The (Colorado Springs, Colo.) Gazette, The Denver Post, ESPN, The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer, The Houston Chronicle, the Star Tribune, The Oklahoman and The Salt Lake Tribune.
Funders and supporters of SJI, which was founded in 1993, include APSE, Chicago Tribune Foundation, The Poynter Institute and St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, among others.
