How to Apply

2012 National Health Journalism Fellowship, Dennis A. Hunt Health Journalism Fund, The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health Journalism Fund

Event Schedule: July 22-26, 2012

Deadline: April 16, 2012

The following information applies to applicants for the 2012 National Health Journalism Fellowship and Dennis A. Hunt Health Reporting Grants. Please read each section carefully.

Why Participate: You will gain confidence, skills, sources, and new storytelling approaches on the circumstances that shape the health of residents of your community and receive a stipend to underwrite the reporting of a substantive health journalism project.

How to Apply: Applicants must join ReportingonHealth and post a profile and photo. The actual application is online; click on online application to access. As part of the application package, candidates must submit:

-A completed application form
-A personal statement
-A Fellowship project proposal, including a proposed budget
-Three samples of professional work
-A current resumé
-A letter of reference
-An Editor's Checklist signed by an assigning editor and confirming the media outlet's intent to publish or broadcast the Fellowship project

Personal Statement (Including Project Proposal)

In no more than 500 words, please describe your health reporting experience. Tell us about the types of health care stories you currently cover (or would like to cover) and why you are interested in attending the Fellowship sessions. Include a description of your publication, broadcast outlet, or website, including the size, nature, and geographic reach of its audience, and how it's measured. (For websites, we prefer Google analytics.)

In 750 to 1,000 words, summarize three individual stories or a major domestic health reporting project that you propose to pursue as part of the Fellowship. We are looking for project descriptions that are in-depth and indicate that the applicant has already done some preliminary research. In your description, summarize likely themes, multimedia components, and any social media and audience engagement strategies you anticipate. Your proposal should be well researched and should demonstrate that you have done some deep thinking about the relevance of the topic to your community. Preference is given to projects that focus on community health issues in underserved populations. Journalists at mainstream and ethnic publications who propose a collaborative project will be given priority consideration.

If you are applying concurrently for a grant from the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism, your project proposal should focus on a community health issue and should include a budget requesting a specific grant amount ($2,500-$10,000) and indicating how you would spend it.

If you are applying concurrently for a grant from the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health Journalism Fund, your proposal should focus on children's health and health care policy in California and should include a budget requesting a specific grant amount ($2,000-$5,000) and detailing how you would spend it.

Three Samples of Your Work: Submit three samples of your best work. (Please provide working URLs, as well as Word documents or PDFs). If you are an editor, submit work that you supervised and edited, along with an explanation of your role in shaping the content. If you write in a language other than English or Spanish, we prefer to receive translations of your work. If that is not possible, send a two-paragraph summary in English of each story. 

Resumé: Please include a current resumé.

Letter of Reference: Please supply a letter of reference from your assigning editor, producer, or news director that discusses your abilities and potential as a journalist. The letter should also confirm the following:

-That you have discussed your proposed stories with your supervisor or assigning editor
-That the news organization expects to publish or air your stories, assuming they meet their standards
-That your employer will permit you to attend all Fellowship sessions (disregard if you're a freelancer)

Editor/Story Checklist (download pdf): Download it, complete it, get your assigning editor's signature on it, and scan it into your computer to submit with your online application or FAX it to us at (877) 413-3873. Both freelance and employed journalists must submit written confirmation of a news organization's commitment to publish or air the work resulting from the Fellowship, assuming it meets its standards.

How We Select Fellows:

When choosing Fellows, we consider each candidate's personal and professional accomplishments and potential, as well as the potential contribution of his or her proposed stories or project on the public's understanding of health issues. We value diversity in both our Fellows and their media outlets. We encourage applications from candidates who serve non-English speaking audiences, although our seminars are conducted in English, so Fellows must be fluent in English.

The Fellowship program will only review complete applications submitted by the deadline.

Fellowship Terms:

All Fellows are expected to:

-Attend all required workshops.
-Participate in a "community of Fellows" during workshop sessions
-Treat other Fellows' works-in-progress as confidential
-Join and become active in our online community
-Within six months of the Fellowship's final session (one year for Hunt grantees), complete three substantive articles or a major reporting project on a domestic health issue        

-Disseminate information from the seminars to colleagues
-Serve as a mentor and resource to our program as we reach out to other journalists
-Write at least two blog posts for ReportingonHealth.org about your Fellowship project

Click here for the link to our online application.

For More Information: In advance of your application, we encourage discussions on possible Fellowship projects and on the program itself. To arrange to talk to us, please email Martha Shirk at CAHealth@usc.edu.