(High school interns meet with FJA™ and COCC staff Lily Raff McCaulou to pitch news stories for the student-led Obsidian online newspaper. Photo by Joe Kline, courtesy of FORJ.)
FORJ’s Future Journalists of America™ program has moved to Central Oregon Community College, giving participating students an in-person or remote learning opportunity to earn college credit while completing the paid internships that have been at the heart of the program for the past four years.
Besides classroom instruction, FJA connects students with local news organizations, where they gain hands-on experience reporting, writing and learning how journalism serves a community. More than 70 students have participated since the program began in 2022.
FORJ and COCC are creating expanded pathways into journalism, as well as a stronger bridge between classroom learning, practical experience and future education or employment. Students will continue to receive paid internships through FORJ. The addition of college credit recognizes the academic value of their work and gives students a head start on their college education.
COCC is also launching a new Focus Award in Journalism this Fall. The award will provide students with a defined course of study in journalism and introduce them to the skills needed to gather information, evaluate sources, interview community members and communicate accurately across multiple platforms.
Together, the FJA program and the new Focus Award begin to build something Oregon’s rural and small-town communities urgently need: a locally rooted pathway for the next generation of journalists.
For FORJ, this work is about more than preparing students for a profession. It is about helping communities develop the people who will attend public meetings, ask important questions, document local life and tell the stories that might otherwise go untold.
