ProPublica will once again organize and host the Diversity Mentorship Event at the Online News Association conference this fall. This is the sixth year of the program, which is designed to connect people from communities that are historically underrepresented in journalism with people at the top of the field.
ONA20 is remote and virtual, and we are too.
Professional networks are crucial to advancing a journalist’s career. The goal of this event is to help promising journalists build these networks in order to make the industry more inclusive.
Past mentors have included newsroom leaders, startup founders, highly accomplished reporters, producers, designers, editors and more.
We pair mentees with mentors based on their backgrounds, challenges and interests in journalism. Mentees also have an opportunity to network with one another.
We’ll host a virtual event for 65 people who are participating in the ONA conference on Thursday, Oct. 8. We stick to a 1-1 or 2-1 ratio of mentees to mentors for this event, which means we’ll accept about 45 mentees. Our event will kick off with a short group discussion and then will transition to virtual guided networking between mentors and mentees.
Anyone from an underrepresented group — including people of color, women, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities — is welcome to apply to be a mentee. Applicants must be attending ONA and must be available Thursday, Oct. 8, at 1 p.m. EDT.
If you’re interested in being a mentee, apply via this form. The deadline to apply is Sept. 28. We’ll let you know if you’ve been matched with a mentor by Oct. 1. We’ll do our best to match everyone with a mentor, but space is limited.
If you’re interested in being a mentor, you can apply via this form. Past mentors have found the experience easy and rewarding, and they have let us know they appreciate meeting and sharing their knowledge with ambitious journalists in the middle stages of their careers. We will provide some guidance for beginning and maintaining a relationship with your mentee.
Questions? Email [email protected]. 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.
