Native Voices for College Students
WATCH | In this NAJA Native Voices newscast, student journalists report stories about the Native American community in Minneapolis-St. Paul (July 2010).
Native Voices is a week-long program for college and graduate school students who plan to enter the field of journalism.
The program is open to Native American students who are enrolled in journalism or communications programs, or who have shown a demonstrated interest in pursuing journalism or news media careers. A
This year, Native Voices will be held July 14-20 at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School for Journalism and Mass Communication in downtown Phoenix.
As many as 10 students accepted into the program will work together to produce a student newspaper, multimedia projects and newscasts. Most stories will focus on the local Native American community and tribes in the Phoenix area.
The Native Voices program offers student journalists' an outstanding setting to develop storytelling and reporting skills under the guidance of highly skilled reporters, editors and producers currently working in tribal and mainstream media. Students will also receive the opportunity to network with journalists and recruiters attending the conference.
NAJA's programs have proven to be highly successful in fostering the careers of many Native American journalists and establishing years-long mentor relationships that support their work in a competitive newsroom environments.
The deadline to apply for the Native Voices program is April 30.
Click here to download the 2013 Native Voices application.
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Meet some of NAJA's former Native Voices students:
Dalton Walker is a digital reporter at the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D. He reported for NAJA's Native Voices newspaper in 2005, which was produced at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Working on the newspaper gave Dalton an early look at the school where he would later earn his journalism degree. He says the NAJA program helped him understand what can be accomplished when a strong organizational structure is in place, and introduced him to an important mentor -- Lincoln Journal Star reporter Kevin Abourezk. Dalton credits Kevin's mentoring with providing key support during his academic career.
Jason Begay is the director of Native American journalism projects at the University of Montana School of Journalism. He graduated from the school in 2002, with the help of NAJA scholarships and the opportunity to grow as a reporter through the Native Voices program. He has worked at The New York Times, The Oregonian and the Navajo Times, where he spent six years before accepting his current position.
Tetona Dunlap is a features reporter at the Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho. Tetona also currently serves on the NAJA board of directors. A member of NAJA since high school, she has been the recipient of several NAJA scholarships and she took part in the Native Voices program during UNITY 2004, when she was a student photographer at the convention in Washington, D.C. Later, Tetona served as a NAJA mentor during the 2008 UNITY conference in Chicago and 2009 Native Voices program in Albuquerque, N.M. She has worked at The Associated Press in Seattle, The Washington Post and the Oklahoman in Oklahoma City. She worked at the Kansas City Star for three years as a photojournalist/videographer before attending the University of Montana School of Journalism where she received her masters degree in journalism in 2011.
