It's our pleasure to announce we'll be continuing the popular Diversity Mentorship Program at the Online News Association conference this year. The event, now in its fourth year, allows people from historically underrepresented communities in journalism to connect with mentors at the top of the field.
Past mentors have included highly accomplished editors and reporters, producers, startup founders, business leaders and others. Mentors are hand-selected based on mentees' interests and backgrounds, with a particular eye toward helping minorities advance in journalism. We recognize the importance of mentorship in increasing inclusivity and seek to create partnerships that persist beyond this event.
We'll host a hot breakfast at ONA for 50 people on Sept. 14, from 8-9:30 a.m. We stick to a 2:1 ratio of mentees to mentors for this event, which means we'll accept about 33 mentees.
Anyone from an underrepresented group --- including people of color, women, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities --- is welcome to apply. We're only considering applicants who are attending ONA and who will be available the morning of Friday, Sept. 14. You can apply via this form.
The deadline to apply for the Diversity Mentorship Program has been extended through Monday, Aug. 20. We'll let you know if you've been matched with a mentor by Wednesday, Aug. 29. We'll do our best to match everyone with a mentor, but please bear in mind that space is limited.
Special thanks goes to News Republic for their continued sponsorship of this event. Their financial support makes it possible!
If you have questions, address them to Hannah Birch at diversity@propublica.org. For more about ProPublica's commitment to helping make our newsroom and journalism at large more inclusive, see some of the steps we're taking.