LACT Awards ELi Grant to Support Youth Journalism

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Tuesday, May 9, 2017, 3:21 pm
By: 
Alice Dreger, Publisher

The Lansing Area Community Trust (LACT) has awarded East Lansing Info (ELi) a grant for our Summer Youth Journalism Program! The grant of $3,600 will be used to support the two-week program to be led by journalism educator Cody Harrell.

This is the largest grant received by ELi to date, and came about via our January sustainability campaign. LACT contacted ELi as a result of publicity about that campaign, and, once we knew we had achieved financial sustainability for 2017, we formally applied for the Trust’s support for our August 2017 youth journalism program.

At its last meeting, ELi’s Board of Directors expressed great excitement over and appreciation for LACT’s vote of confidence in our public-service local journalism.

Managing Editor Ann Nichols has also expressed enthusiasm about this unique local program, writing, “My favorite aspect of my work at ELi is watching young reporters grow in skill and confidence. This program will give participants the best possible grounding in everything from critical analysis to writing good ledes, and let them hit the ground running as citizen reporters.”

In the program, in addition to learning from a curriculum specially developed by Harrell, participants will gain real-world experience working as reporters for ELi. The expectation is that some of the participants will elect to continue working beyond the program as reporters for ELi’s readers.

Some participants may also elect to pursue careers in journalism, although the program is not restricted to those with that intention. ELi is founded on the belief that all citizens can be trained to become local reporters of nonpartisan, factual news.

The application cycle is now open and ELi is actively receiving applications from people in the age 14-22 group from around the area. (Applicants do not need to live in East Lansing.) Applications are being processed on a rolling basis. To learn more about the program and the application process, click here.

ELi will also be asking donors to help match the donation from LACT. Matching donations will help us increase the number of applicants we can accept and will go to help support participants who opt to continue to work for ELi after the program’s completion.

Donations by check can be sent to East Lansing Info at PO Box 115, East Lansing, MI 48826. Donations by credit card can be made through this link. Donations to ELi are tax-deductible.

 

 

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