All 50 students at the new CUNY Graduate School of Journalism will have paid internships at news organizations this summer, with the assistance of a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Summer internships carrying three hours of academic credit are part of the School's regular curriculum. The $125,000 grant from the Knight Foundation guarantees that students working at news organizations that do not offer paid internships will earn at least $3,000 for the summer.

Stephen Shepard, dean of the school, said the grant will allow students to do meaningful work at large and small media organizations across the country, regardless of their financial circumstance.

"This grant is important to our mission as the only publicly-supported graduate school of journalism in the Northeast," Shepard said. "The Knight Foundation is allowing our students to gain the sort of workplace experience that is usually reserved for students who have the luxury of accepting unpaid internships."

At the same time, Shepard said, the grant will allow the School to place students in smaller news organizations, such as community newspapers, that do not typically offer paid internships.

"The summer internship is a key component of the school's curriculum," Shepard added. "Internships, and the real-world experience they provide, make a crucial difference in a student's ability to get a job upon graduation."

The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism opened in September 2006 in Midtown Manhattan. Its Master of Arts program, which costs $11,250 in tuition and fees over three semesters, is aimed at providing affordable graduate education in journalism to a broad range of students, including minorities, immigrants and the economically disadvantaged. Tuition and fees for the three established graduate degrees in journalism in New York State, all at private universities, hover around $40,000.

The 50 students are from the School's inaugural class. By summer, they will have completed their first two semesters of studies with one semester remaining. They will work at a range of organizations, from international media groups to community newspapers. Among the media organizations that have committed to internships for CUNY students under the program are: Business Week, Bloomberg Television, the Detroit Free Press, Newark Star Ledger, New York Daily News, People Magazine, Queens Tribune and Women's eNews.

The Knight Foundation characterized the grant as a win-win proposition. "Students will gain work experience that will build their journalistic skills and help them identify areas to focus on during their final semester in the master's program," the foundation said in its grant agreement. "Community and ethnic news outlets that use their work will benefit from the additional resources."

The foundation said it expects that the internships will help students build clips and credits that will help them get jobs after graduating at the end of 2007. "Ultimately, this project helps achieve the overall aim of allowing a cadre of students diverse in race and class to enter the job market."

As part of the internship program, the School will post summer internship information on its Web site, www.journalism.cuny.edu, hold a "Meet the Editors" event for community news organizations to discuss their internship needs with students, and bring recruiters in from larger news organizations to discuss their specific needs.

Students applauded news of the grant. "It gives students who might not get well-funded internships the chance to work on more independent projects without worrying about making ends meet," said Ana Toro, a print major. "It gives you a chance to look for other internships than just internships that pay."

The Knight Foundation's twin missions are to seed and inspire great journalism and to build strong communities in the cities and towns where its founders ran newspapers. Previously, the foundation awarded the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism a $50,000 grant to help produce an interactive legal guide that will be the core element of the Knight Citizen News network, a one-stop Web site for citizen journalism training.

For more information, contact:
At the Graduate School of Journalism:
Ellen Walterscheid, 646-758-7821, or Duffie Cohen, 212-541-0181
At the Knight Foundation: Denise Tom, 305-908-2637