Category Archives: Masters

Any MSU School of Journalism masters student can enroll in an environmental journalism class to fulfill graduate requirements or electives.
Students can also complete a specialized master’s degree environmental option that combines environmental journalism, science or policy courses. Students learn advanced reporting techniques for covering complicated environmental issues. The environmental option appears on a graduate’s transcript.
FAQ for masters program.
Students must be admitted into the M.A. Program in Journalism and have selected the Environmental Option. The MSU environmental journalism option requirements are here.

Knight Center and affiliated faculty teach a rotating schedule of graduate-level environmental journalism courses. Consult schedule of courses for the latest offerings.
Graduate students are encouraged to join the student Environmental Journalism Association and report for Great Lakes Echo, the Knight Center’s award-winning non-profit environmental news service.
They are encouraged to augment their study with environment classes and programs elsewhere at MSU such as through the Environmental Science and Policy Program.

Apply

Applications to the School of Journalism’s masters program are accepted on a rolling basis. Students should submit an electronic application and send GRE scores and two copies of their official undergraduate transcript. International students should submit TOEFL scores. Send to:

MSU Admissions Office
250 Administration Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Mich. 48824

Applicants should also send the following:

three letters of recommendation
a 750-word autobiography
a 1,000-word statement of purpose
a resume
and an indication of interest in an assistantship or other financial aid
to the Journalism School:

MSU School of Journalism
c/o the Graduate Secretary
School of Journalism
305 Communication Arts Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1212

For questions, contact graduate student coordinator Nancy Ashley, ashleyn@msu.edu

Aid

Limited graduate assistantships are occasionally available, depending on faculty research grants. Students may also qualify for scholarships.

Paid summer reporting internships available for MSU students at six Michigan news organizations

Michigan State University students are eligible for six paid internships this summer at major multi-media Michigan news organizations.

These internships through MSU’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism meet the MSU J-School’s internship requirement. Environmental expertise or particular interest is not required. But you’ll gain both.

The application deadline is Saturday, February 28, 2026.

Four internships are with members of the Great Lakes News Collaborative, a group of independent multi-media news organizations. These are for students with diverse backgrounds and life experiences. Please review the job descriptions for each newsroom. When applying, please rank which newsroom(s) interest you from the most to the least, based on the job descriptions and your ability to fulfill the location requirements. Circle of Blue, for example, is entirely remote, while Bridge Michigan, Detroit PBS and Michigan Public are hybrid or in-person. Continue reading →

Knight Center team attends science writers conference

Five environmental journalism students and Knight Center director Eric Freedman attended the recent annual conference of the National Association of Science Writers in Chicago.

They were undergrads Clara Lincolnhol, Emilio Perez Ibarguen and Isabella Figueroa Nogueira and master’s students Shealyn Paulis and Julia Belden.

Topics ranged from skill-building such as editor-freelance relations, using data in stories, making science videos and how reporters can conduct their own mini-investigations to issues such as the future of U.S. science, AI and data centers, nuclear weapons and the brain drain.

The students will be writing stories for the Knight Center website and Facebook page and the Journalism School’s Facebook page on lessons learned from the conference.

Also attending the conference from MSU were Knight Center master’s alum Ruth Thornton, university science public relations manager Emilie Lorditch, outreach specialist and MSU alum Ana Becerril of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams and Angela Prete, a graduate student in microbial & molecular genetics.

Learning how with Great Lakes Now

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By Donté Smith

Donté Smith

After spending most of my time in the Michigan State University journalism master’s program honing my photography skills, in the last year I focused on developing my writing and storytelling.

Joining the Great Lakes Now team allowed me to apply these skills in a new way while learning new techniques, like creating social media content, to stay prepared for the ever-changing world of journalism.

Experiences with Capital News Service and Great Lakes Echo gave me the confidence to pitch new story ideas and suggest fresh concepts for existing pitches.

My photography experience was appreciated, and I benefited from being around other photo- and video-focused people. They gave me new ideas for capturing images and suggested gear that would help me get the right shots for a story. While serving as both the reporter and the photographer for assignments was challenging, it helped me grow in both areas.

Joining the Great Lakes Now team was intimidating at first.

Being under the Detroit Public Television (PBS) umbrella, the organization was facing challenges related to federal funding reductions. I commend the Great Lakes Now team for providing me with engaging experiences while dealing with these challenges.

This experience taught me how much the world of journalism is constantly changing and that organizations like PBS will need to lean on their community-based models to face these challenges. Continue reading →

Knight Center graduate student delves into the reasons for the decline of butterflies