Each year the Kent State University School of Communication Studies helps the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting promote its Student Fellowship program in which students and journalism professionals obtain stipends for the purpose of traveling internationally to cover under-reported stories. Its mission is to enable people to share stories from abroad that don’t get enough attention.
Any student at a partner school can apply for the fellowship. Applicants must choose an international topic that they are interested in and the Pulitzer Center staff will then help them to refine the objective, determine what the actual story is and complete it.
The application process is done online where applicants submit three references and a short description of the proposed project in 250 words or less. Applicants should have the whole project and travel experience planned, including cost and duration of stay, before departure.
During the time abroad, students should be able to tell a story about their topic. There is no specific stipulation about how to do this. In the past, many Pulitzer Fellows had used photos or video to tell their stories. The staff at the Pulitzer Center can be reached by email at studentfellows@pulitzercenter.org and are available to answer questions about potential topics and the application process.
After the story is finished, there can be the opportunity to get the story published in a magazine or other publication, which the Pulitzer Center is also willing to help with. There is also the potential to use this opportunity to satisfy an internship or practicum requirement with permission from the appropriate advisor.
Global communication studies and political science senior Anna Hoffman had the opportunity to travel and complete a reporting project in Ireland with the help of her Pulitzer Center Student Fellowship. There she wrote multiple stories on the decline of the Irish language. One story was published in the Huffington Post, and another was published by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.
Hoffman says that obtaining the Pulitzer Center Student Fellowship helped give her the opportunity to intern with Viacom in strategic insights and research in New York City as well as a semester-long internship program in Washington D.C. through the political science department.
She mentioned that her communication studies classes were especially useful for her Pulitzer Student Fellowship in Ireland.
“Communication studies is very theoretical, and when you apply what you learn in your classes, it makes for very good story telling,” Hoffman said.
Recently, Hoffman had the opportunity to return to Washington D.C. to present her story about the Irish language as well as observe presentations by other students and professionals.
She would encourage anyone, not just journalism or communication students, to apply for the Pulitzer Student Fellowship and have the same opportunity to share what they have learned.