Emerging Journalist Program

The University of North Texas Mayborn School of Journalism's Emerging Journalists Program is designed to prepare the next generations of journalists and help to ensure that newsrooms better represent the broader population. The Mayborn School created a four-year curriculum that joins the school's faculty together with various local and regional media outlets to produce a rigorous in-field training program designed to produce top-tier journalism graduates who are ready to occupy important entry-level jobs from day one.

The Mayborn School's five-part program will create a strong mentor network between students and working journalists, a series of high school workshops that will encourage and recruit new cadres bootcamps, in partnership with the national associations for Black and Hispanic jouranalists, opportunities for students to have their work published by major news organizations, and outreach and continuing education programs for regional high school teachers.

Any Texas high school student who will be a junior, senior or recent graduate in May 2025.

• Fill out the application form for the program, which includes an essay and work samp
• Submit a teacher/mentor teacher recommendation
• Submit a high school transcript
• Submit the parent permission form found on the Emerging Journalists website

March 31, 2025: Deadline for student application
April, 2025: Committee to review applicants and choose finalists and alternates
May 5, 2025: Emerging Journalists announced
June 8-12, 2025: High school workshop from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.
June 15 - Aug 8, 2025: Summer internship term (8 weeks assuming 20 hours per week)

Emerging Journalists will participate in a free, week-long workshop June 8 -12, 2025 that sets thefoundation for a summer internship placement. Journalists will be required to participate in a mix oflive reporting sessions and activities.

The workshop curriculum will focus on fundamental newsgathering, ethical reporting, writing acrossplatforms, journalism industry standards and style, and multimedia storytelling.

Program participants will be paired with mentors and placed in internships with local media outlets.Journalists will be placed in summer internships after the successful completion of the workshop inJune. Journalists will be paid $10 an hour for 20 hours a week over an eight-week period.The internship will span for eight weeks between June 15 until August 8, 2025. 

The expectation isstudents will work for their selected news outlets to produce at least five stories during the eight-weekterm.