Princeton’s summer journalism program for high school juniors: Wow

The SJP class of 2011

Here’s a great opportunity for Bleacher Report writers who are juniors in high school, interested in a journalism career and from low-income households.

The Princeton University Summer Journalism Program brings about 20 high school students from low-income backgrounds to its New Jersey campus for an intensive 10-day journalism seminar. It looks like a spectacular program. From the website linked at the beginning of this paragraph:

Classes at the program are taught by reporters and editors from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The New Yorker, CNN and ABC News, among other media outlets. Students tour the Times, CNN and The Daily Beast; cover a professional sports event (a Yankees, Mets, Jets, Liberty or minor league baseball game); cover news events in the Princeton area; film and produce a TV segment; conduct an investigative project; author a group blog; and report, write, edit and design their own newspaper, The Princeton Summer Journal, which is published on the program’s last day. The program is also designed to give students a taste of what life is like at one of the best colleges in the country—students live on campus and eat in one of the university’s cafeterias—and to prepare them to apply to top schools. Students meet with Princeton’s top professors as well as the school’s president and its dean of admissions. Students attend seminars on every aspect of the college admissions process. They also take a practice SAT and attend an SAT class taught by Princeton Review.

How do they fit all that into 10 days? here’s the schedule from last summer. This ain’t no leisurely vacation in Jersey. Those are 16-hour days, including meals.

If you fit the criteria, you really ought to think seriously about applying. The deadline is Feb. 15. The requirements:

• Current high school junior.
• Live in the continental United States.
• Unweighted GPA of at least 3.5 out of 4.0
• Interest in journalism.
• Combined income of your custodial parents or guardians, plus any child-support payments, must not exceed $45,000, though if it does, students “may attach a statement explaining why you believe your family qualifies as financially under-resourced.”

Here are some statements by Princetom SJP alumni about their experiences.

I find myself wishing I were a junior in high school. That hasn’t happened since I was a sophomore.

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Photo: Courtesy princeton.edu/sjp.