Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship Program for Journalists

Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship Program for Journalists

The Program

The Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship Program builds on Mongabay’s long-running internship program, which has helped bolster the capacity of environmental journalists in a field where such experience can be hard to acquire. Since 2008, the program has provided training and first-hand reporting experience for dozens of budding journalists in more than a dozen countries.

Mongabay interns have gone on to establish careers as professional journalists, communications professionals at scientific institutions and conservation NGOs, and at Mongabay itself.

The Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship Program will support up to 12 fellows per year — six at our global English bureau and six at our Spanish-language bureau, Mongabay-Latam. Each cohort will consist of three fellows per bureau.

Fellows will gain valuable experience working with a range of editors at our international news outlet, develop their environmental reporting skills, and create a portfolio of original publications that should help them advance their careers in journalism.

About Y. Eva Tan

Eva is passionate about equality for all human beings, and conservation of natural habitats, not only fauna but also flora. She is particularly sensitive to creating opportunities for all, irrespective of national origin, ethnicity and ability.

Logistics

The fellowship will run twice a year: April 1 through Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 through March 31.

The application window for the April-September cohort will run Dec. 15-Feb. 10. The application window for the October-March cohort will run June 15-Aug. 10.

Each fellow will receive $500 USD a month for the duration of the six-month fellowship, or $3,000 USD in total. During that time, fellows will work directly with the fellowship editor to produce six stories. Fellows will have opportunities to collaborate with multiple Mongabay editors, including those who specialize in different areas.

Each fellow is expected to commit to engaging 10 hours a week. Each fellow is expected to produce an average of one story per month over the course of the fellowship to be published on Mongabay’s website.

Work is remote — Mongabay does not have an office and cannot support work visas.

Eligibility

Applicants must be from a low- to upper-middle income tropical country, as classified by the World Bank. “High-income” tropical countries, such as Singapore and Australia, are excluded from the fellowship. A list of eligible countries can be found here.

Applicants must be aspiring, early-career environmental journalists.

Applicants must be able to work remotely and commit to 10 hours per week.

There is no education requirement to apply for the program. The fellowship is not linked to any university.

All application materials must be submitted in the appropriate language (English for the English-language program and Spanish for the Spanish-language program).

All materials must adhere to the guidelines below; applications that do not follow the guidelines will be disqualified.

We are currently only accepting fellows for our global English- and Spanish-language bureaus. Our ambition is to eventually expand this program into other Mongabay bureaus, including Indonesia, India, Brazil and French-speaking tropical countries, but we don’t currently have a timeline for this expansion.

Desired Experience & Qualifications / Judging Criteria

Basic understanding of and interest in reporting and writing news stories;

Demonstrated interest in conservation issues;

Demonstrated interest in environmental journalism as a career;

Proven communication skills;

Capacity to fulfill all of the fellowship requirements and reporting plans.

How to Apply

For more information and job application details, see; Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship Program for Journalists