Expanding our Journalism Fellowship Program!

With your help, Bay Nature is expanding our Journalism Fellowship Program!

Last year, the Bay Nature community helped launch the Bay Nature Journalism Fellowship Program and hire our first fellow, Guananí Gómez-Van Cortright.

In her year at Bay Nature, Guananí developed her reporting and writing skills, worked in a physical newsroom for the first time, and received mentorship from our skilled editors. She wrote pieces on a range of topics including the avian flu, protists, and the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust’s successful reclamation of land in Oakland. Thanks to this fellowship, Guananí has developed the tools to build a successful career as an environmental journalist.

This year, with your support, we’re expanding our program to train two early-career environmental journalists from historically underrepresented communities during full-time, one-year paid fellowships.

The media industry—and environmental journalism in particular—suffers from a lack of reporters from diverse backgrounds who reflect the readers they serve. These fellowships are a valuable addition to the pipeline necessary for the next generation of environmental journalists. 

Under the training and mentorship of Bay Nature editors, the fellows will further develop skills in reporting, writing, and fact-checking, plus learn about and spend time in San Francisco Bay Area environments and environmental communities. After the year, the fellows will leave with a range of published articles—from short news pieces to long enterprise features—and with contacts, insight, and experience that will prepare the fellows to continue to report and write about the environment.

Thanks to a generous grant from The Schmidt Family Foundation, we are well on our way toward fully funding our 2023-24 class of journalism fellows. Our aim with this crowdfunder is to raise $20,000 to help cover the internal operating costs of supporting the fellowships. 

Photo credit: Barbara Butkus