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Washington, DC (CapitalWirePR) February 20 2008 – The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and the National Association of Hispanic Publications Foundation (NAHP) are kicking off the third year of its successful joint internship program to support Latino journalism students interested in careers at Hispanic or Spanish-language media publications.
Four students will be selected to be in the third class of the NAHJ/NAHP Ford Blue Oval Journalism Internship program, sponsored by Ford Motor Company. The aspiring Latino journalists will complete twelve-week summer internships at Hispanic or Spanish-language publications in the nation’s capital in 2008, covering local Latino communities and national Hispanic issues.
The four interns will also participate in a week-long intensive journalism training at the UNITY ’08 Convention in Chicago, July 23-27, alongside African American, Asian American and Native American students aspiring to become journalists. Two of the nine students from previous years were offered full-time positions at their respective publications after completing the internship.
Students or recent graduates interested in applying for the internship can visit www.nahj.org for more information and to download the application form.
“We need to train and cultivate our young people who can do journalism in Spanish or in both languages and this program is a solid step to achieving that,” said Iván Román, NAHJ’s Executive Director. “It’s the best way to serve our community while securing more fair coverage of Latinos in the media. We thank Ford for the opportunity to add their voices to the mix.”
“Ford has demonstrated commitment to Hispanic media by pulling NAHJ and NAHP into an ongoing collaborative relationship. Ford is supporting more than an internship program. Ford is fostering industry alliances and community building, and for that, we owe them more than a sponsorship acknowledgement,” said Eddie Escobedo, Chairman of the Board of the NAHP Foundation.
This successful program is unique in that it helps grow a pool of young journalists who are developing closer ties to the country’s growing independent Spanish-language media and English-language Hispanic publications. In contrast to the mainstream press, these publications often struggle to find staffers or contributors who can not only write in Spanish, but who know how the U.S. society, economy and political system work, a key skill when covering the country’s newer and growing Latino community.
“This is an innovative partnership with two leading organizations in the field of Hispanic media and journalism that furthers our commitment to educating Hispanic youth,” said Raquel "Rocky" Egusquiza, Director of Community Development and International Strategy, Ford Motor Company Fund, “Ford is excited to be playing a role in the development of the next generation of Latino journalists through this internship program.”
The nine interns for the program’s first two classes hailed from the Northridge and Dominguez Hills campuses of California State University, University of Maryland, Hunter College, University of Texas at El Paso, University of the District of Columbia, and the University of Puerto Rico and Sacred Heart University, both in San Juan.
The 2007 class of interns chronicled the latest developments in the immigration reform debate, covered hearings and issues in the Capitol on a myriad of issues, informed readers about employment trends, women’s issues and problems with their children’s education, and wrote extensively about the performance of local and national soccer teams, including the game in Washington featuring international soccer star David Beckham.
“In these publications, you are trained that what the community cares about is what you should care about when you’re covering the news,” said Zoe Gonzalez, a senior at Sacred Heart University in San Juan, who completed her internship at El Pregonero in Washington, D.C.. “You have more time to get to know the people more and really understand the community, their thoughts and give them more of a voice. It’s an eye-opening experience.”
NAHJ is the largest association for Hispanic journalists in the country with more than 2,000 members. Founded in 1984, the mission of NAHJ is to increase the number of Latino journalists working in the nation’s newsrooms and to improve the media’s coverage of the Latino community.
NAHP Foundation works with more than 400 Hispanic publications throughout the United States. Those publications circulate more than 25 million copies each week. Its mission is excellence in Hispanic publishing.
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