ProPublica and Mashable are proud to announce our first-ever Diversity Mentorship Program at the Online News Association conference in Los Angeles this year. You can apply here.
Last month, ProPublica published what we’re doing to increase the diversity of our newsroom and, more broadly, investigative journalism. This breakfast is another step toward making it easier for journalists from underrepresented communities to get to know us, and forge some meaningful relationships with senior journalists and editors.
Since this is our first event, we’re starting small and hosting a free hot breakfast for 50 people on Friday, Sept. 25th, from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. We’ll have a 2:1 mentee:mentor ratio, which means we’ll be accepting 33 mentees for the event.
Anyone who is part of an underrepresented community, including African Americans, Latinos, other people of color, women, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities, is encouraged to apply here. Only applicants who are planning on attending ONA and are available that Friday morning will be considered.
Mentors will be managing editors, executive editors and other top journalists from across the industry. Based on your application, we’ll try to match you with a mentor who can best address the issues you bring up and shares your interests within journalism. During breakfast, you’ll have plenty of time with your mentor, and also the opportunity to meet the other mentors and each other. We’re hoping — and expecting — the mentor/mentee relationship to continue long after the breakfast is over.
The deadline to apply is Monday, Sept. 14. We’ll let you know if you’ve been matched with a mentor by Monday, Sept. 21. We’ll try to match everyone, but space is limited.
We’re excited to be hosting this event at ONA, which has become one of the largest gatherings of digital journalists.
Questions? Send them to Ryann at ryann.jones@propublica.org.
