Verite is a Black-led nonprofit news organization with a twofold mission to produce in-depth journalism that serves the whole community while training, educating and mentoring a new generation of minority journalists.

Launching in fall 2022, Verite is growing a staff that will be recognized as a leader in independent, nonpartisan journalism in the Deep South. 

The mission is to create a newsroom that is truly diverse in perspective, background and experience. 

To that end, Verite is seeking college fellows to learn and work part-time as part of our newsroom team.

Job Title: College fellowship

Reports to: Fellowship editor/administrator

The Verite College Fellowship is designed for early career journalists who want to spend their senior year learning from a newsroom of passionate, dedicated journalists. College Fellows are mentored by our news team to become experts in digital storytelling, social media and audience engagement. They produce real work that is distributed to our readership, and by the end of their senior year are prepared for the next phase of their journalism careers.

The College Fellowship serves as a means to develop a broad experience in a journalist’s career that will foster professional development within the new media arena. In order to cultivate competencies that are critical to success, the fellow will have the opportunity to be exposed to:

• Working with a newsroom of talented and experienced reporters.
• Pulitzer Prize-winning editors that will provide them with professional feedback 
• Unique projects that will challenge and stretch the fellow’s skillset
• Learn how to aggregate news responsibly, do original reporting, and build sources.
• Training on modern reporting tools and techniques
• Quarterly workshops conducted by well-known newsroom leaders and publishers
• One year membership into a National Journalism Association (NABJ, NAHJ, NLGJA)

Expectations:

• Work with a team of journalists who are focused on revealing and seeking solutions to social inequities and racial equality in our area.
• Develop your own story ideas, accept assignments and be willing to collaborate with a small team of like-minded journalists
• Find willing sources, get people to talk, and protect them while telling sensitive and timely stories
• Build trust. This will require empathy, patience and savvy.
• Work with our audience team and data and visual journalists to create compelling story presentations.

Qualified candidates should:

• Be a rising senior in a local bachelor’s program
• Have the ability to work quickly, with accuracy and with good news judgment.
• Be able to independently develop and cultivate sources.
• Be able to use social media for research and to engage readers.
• Be willing to develop digital storytelling skills and an open mind to trying new approaches.

What you’ll get:

• The opportunity to work alongside and learn from award-winning journalists
• A competitive wage 
• Use of appropriate technology and equipment. 
• Exposure and training in other media of interest. 

How to Apply:

We’re committed to building an inclusive newsroom that represents the people and communities we serve. We especially encourage members of traditionally under-represented communities to apply for this position, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people who are differently abled. Please send resume, contact info and links or attachments to relevant work product to dpenny@veritenews.org.

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