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.

Knight Center students earn top honors

Environmental journalism students Kevin Duffy, Jenna Chapman, Amanda Proscia and Danielle Woodward are among those recently recognized by Michigan State University’s School of Journalism for outstanding accomplishments. Image: Barb Miller

Eleven students affiliated with the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism are among the award winners recognized recently by Michigan State University’s School of Journalism.
They include:

Chelsea Mongeau, Edward J. Meeman award for outstanding undergraduate student in environmental journalism
Perry Parks, Rachel Carson award for outstanding graduate student in environmental journalism and also recognized as outstanding doctoral student
Danielle Woodward, Knight Center Service Award and also a National Pulliam Journalism Fellowship
Amelia Havanec, co-winner of the Len Barnes Scholarship and a Mary Adelaide Gardner Scholarship
Colleen Otte, co-winner of the Len Barnes Scholarship and a Mary Adelaide Gardner Scholarship
Kevin Duffy, co-winner of the Don Caldwell Memorial Scholarship
Amanda Proscia, co-winner of the Outstanding Masters Student award and co-winner of the Don Caldwell Memorial Scholarship
Jenna Chapman, winner of the Larry Lee Overseas Study Scholarship
Nyla Hughes, winner of the Michael A. and Sandra S. Clark Scholarship
Collin Krizmanich, winner of the Donald F. & Katherine K. Dahlstrom Scholarship
Carie Cunningham, winner of the Mickie L. Edwardson Endowed Scholarship

Information and past winners of Knight Center awards are here. Information and past winners of Knight Center scholarships are here.

Knight Center graduate student lands tech fellowship

Amelia Havanec

Michigan State University Knight Center graduate student Amelia Havanec recently snagged a summer fellowship with a Seattle independent electronic journal.
Crosscut is a non-profit publication founded in 2007 and that serves residents of the Pacific Northwest with facts and analysis of local news. Seattle is the home of such tech giants as Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia and Zillow. Amelia will report on the region’s growing science, environmental and tech space.
She will also help implement Crosscut’s third “Community Ideas Lab,” an ideas contest that organizes people of the Pacific Northwest around local issues that need collective attention. The contest helps put Crosscut’s news stories into perspective.
Amelia has a bachelor of sciences degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester. She has immersed herself in the pursuit of a scientific journalism career and has written for Scientific American MIND, LiveScience.com and The Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, in La Jolla, California.
She enrolled in MSU this past January and is the recipient of The Len Barnes AAA Scholarship and The Don Caldwell Memorial Scholarship in Environmental Journalism.
Amelia is also a producer and host of The Food Fix, a student-led podcast that explores food systems innovations around the world.

Knight Center grad lands job as environmental communications director

Haley Walker

Michigan State University Knight Center graduate Haley Walker recently landed a job as the communications manager of The Freshwater Trust in Portland, Oregon.
The Freshwater Trust is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that actively works to preserve and restore the country’s freshwater ecosystems. The group builds, locally implements and scales game-changing tools that help achieve freshwater health.
Continue reading →

Knight Center students snowshoe to journalism workshop

Knight Center students and faculty snowshoe to the University of Notre Dame’s Linked Experimental Ecosystem Facility. Attending the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources are from right students Jenna Chapman, Kevin Duffy and Amanda Proscia and Knight Center Senior Associate Director David Poulson. Image: Jim Bloch

By Amanda Proscia
With noses running, bodies shivering and faces smiling, three Knight Center student journalists recently snowshoed to a session of an environmental journalism workshop.
The Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources (IJNR) hosted the two-day “Talking Science, Telling Stories” workshop in South Bend, Indiana, for reporters mostly from the Midwest.
Continue reading →