December 9, 2016
ATHENS – The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) has awarded a $1.3 million grant to Columbia Journalism School in New York City for a three-year pilot program allowing both entry-level and mid-career mass media professionals as well as recent journalism program graduates from Greece to participate in three intensive summer courses at the prestigious school.
Up to 18 candidates annually will have the opportunity through the SNF grant to enhance their skills and careers with training courses at Columbia Journalism School. All expenses associated with these courses, including tuition, airfare, local transportation, as well as room and board will be fully covered by the SNF scholarships.
The scholarships are being offered in the following three courses:
The Lede Program – An four-month intensive certification course designed to teach journalists and storytellers of all kinds the computational skills needed to turn data into narrative. No prior experience in data or coding is necessary. Over the course of the program, students are introduced to the essentials of computing, data analysis and data visualization. It is offered from May 22 – September 11, 2017.
Multimedia Reporting Course – Designed for journalists who are interested in the use of video and multimedia for storytelling, this three-week course focuses on how to conceive of and structure a story, how to handle a camera, how to use post‐production software, and how to combine audio and visual components to deliver a story. The course runs from June 12-30, 2017.
Investigative Reporting Course – Over three weeks, journalists and editors from around the world in all media platforms, examine the structured process of investigative journalism, how stories are conceived, researched, and written. Fellows bring to the course an idea for an investigative project, and with the instruction of the lecturers will develop their hypothesis. Participants must be experienced journalists who can provide work samples from published/broadcast news media organizations and be proficient in English. The course, offered in conjunction with the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, runs from July 10-28, 2017.
More information on these programs is available online- https://journalism.columbia.edu/professional-development
Andreas Dracopoulos, Co-President and Director of SNF, stated: “All of us at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation are excited to be in a position to collaborate with the renowned Columbia Journalism School in order to give the opportunity to young and established mass media professionals from Greece to attend these intensive summer training programs and obtain additional valuable knowledge and experience.”
Steve Coll, dean of the Columbia Journalism School, said: “The Stavros Niarchos Foundation is creating an extraordinary opportunity for journalists from Greece to hone their skills, further equipping them to do deep, impactful reporting that will help advance their individuals careers and strengthen the quality of journalism produced in the public interest in Greece.”
The application process starts in January 2017 and lasts until the end of February. More detailed information on the process will be posted on the SNF website, http://www.snf.org, early in 2017.
The Foundation is providing full support for the initiative. Admission to the programs is the sole responsibility of the Columbia Journalism School.
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation is one of the world’s leading private international philanthropic organizations, making grants in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. The Foundation funds organizations and projects that are expected to achieve a broad, lasting and positive impact for society at large, focusing on vulnerable groups such as children and the elderly, and also exhibit strong leadership and sound management. The Foundation also seeks actively to support projects that facilitate the formation of public-private partnerships as an effective means for serving public welfare. 2016 marks the twentieth year of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s global philanthropic activity. Since 1996, the SNF has made grant commitments of $1.9 billion / €1.6 billion, through 3,646 grants to nonprofit organizations in 111 nations around the world.
GREEK WORLD MEDIA 