Which Fellowship Program is Right for Me?

Which Program is Right for Me?

The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships offer several professional development opportunities for working journalists in the United States. Students are not eligible. Each year, we vary our offerings somewhat, so please check back frequently for updates. This guide will help you decide which program is right for you.

California Health Journalism Fellowships

The  2013 California Health Journalism Fellowship was held February 24-28, 2013, in Los Angeles.  The 2014 Fellowship will probably be held in February 2014. Admission to this program is limited to journalists who are based in California or based elsewhere but contributing primarily to California-based media outlets. Print, broadcast, and online journalists are eligible to apply. About 20 Fellowships are awarded.

Fellows are expected to complete  an ambitious health reporting project (or three substantive health stories) within six months of the Fellowship session. A Senior Fellow is provided to each Fellow to help guide his or her stories to completion.

National Health Journalism Fellowship

The 2013 National Health Journalism Fellowship will be held July 14-18, 2013 in Los Angeles. The deadline for applications is April 10, 2013. Admission to this program is highly competitive and attracts many qualified print, broadcast, and online journalists across the country. Approximately 15 Fellowships are awarded. California journalists are eligible to apply, but face steeper competition than for the California Health Journalism Fellowship.

In addition to providing four and one-half days of intensive programming on health, health care, and health policy topics, the National Fellowship offers a $2,000 stipend upon publication or broadcast of either three individual health stories or a substantive project on a domestic health issue. The stipend is taxable to the extent required by law. A Senior Fellow consults regularly with each Fellow about his or her project and helps guide it to completion. Stories must be published or broadcast within six months of the Fellowship sessions.

The sessions focus on community health issues that are germane to audiences across the United States.

Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism

The Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism  awards reporting grants of between $2,500 and $10,000 to four or five print, broadcast and new media journalists to undertake ambitious investigative or explanatory journalism projects on community health issues. Unlike the National Fellowships program, which welcomes project proposals on almost any health topic, the Hunt Fund only funds projects that will broaden the public's understanding of community health -- the impact on health of factors such as poverty, race, ethnicity, pollution, crime, and land-use and urban planning decisions. Journalists from around the country are eligible to apply. The application deadline is April 10, 2013. 

Awards for this fund are likely to be highly competitive in 2013, the fund's fifth year. Applicants should expect a high level of scrutiny of their proposed projects and budgets and research them accordingly. Applicants should specify the size of the grant they are seeking and provide justification for the amount; however, the judges reserve the right to award a lesser amount than sought. One third of the amount of the grant will be paid at the outset of the project, with the remaining two-thirds to be paid upon publication or broadcast. The grant is taxable to the extent required by law. Stories must be published or broadcast within one year.

Hunt grantees are also admitted to the all-expenses-paid National Fellowship sessions in Los Angeles. They  receive the Hunt grant instead of the $2,000 stipend for National Fellows. Applicants who are not selected to receive a Dennis A. Hunt grant are eligible to be considered for the National Fellowships.

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