Ananya, Shreya, and Gurpreet were invited to create magazines for their own schools.
Amey created memes, wrote news stories, made puzzles, and did two GK feature series.
Krisha got published 35 times, Anirudh 37 (including a phenomenal research story), Alka had 57, Gurpreet got about 100, Ishaan had 240.
Yashasvi, Aditi, Swasti, Shuchi, Hima, Krisha, Omar, Ishaan, Alka, Gurpreet, and other participants of the program discovered new sides to themselves and understood unexplored perspectives. They all wrote news stories, features, photo features, and those above 14 did video interviews with inspirational people.
Now, it is your turn!
What is the Empowered Journalist Program?
The Empowered Journalists Program is the realisation of a dream that was shared by Ananya Singh, our young reader, many months ago. She wrote to us that she would like to write features for the paper. She wrote some brilliant ones. Then, there were other readers too, sending awesome stuff that was also original.
Slowly, we woke up to the ambition and ability of our children.
The program selects students, then trains them on journalism. After that, they write news and features that are published on this website.
Over the last two batches, it has helped the children bond with each other, learn how to write news, get published, and earn work certificates.
Internship or participation certificates indicate a short term engagement. But a work certificate as a published journalist with a children’s news website is just something else.
In short, The Empower Journalists Program is a program which gives a peek into the world of journalism, and is open to students who are 10-18 years old. Students get trained and then write as real journalists for the website. They get a Work Certificate at the end of the program.
This is the third batch of the program.
What does it offer?
The program includes:
A. A 14-module training on journalism which includes writing, photo journalism, research, public speaking, interviewing skills, and video journalism.
B. The training has weekly assignments and a final submission. A minimum score of 4 out of 10 in each weekly assignment and 6 out of 10 in the final assignment is required to get the training completion certificate and to join the EJ program.
After this, you will be a part of the The Children’s Post Empowered Journalists Program and will routinely write for The Children’s Post of India.
C. Opportunity to do news reportage, video journalism, and photo journalism. (video journalism only for students above 13 years of age)
D. Opportunity to do awesome interviews and write research based feature content.
E. An experience certificate for journalism on the completion of the program.
F. Opportunity to mentor the subsequent batches.
Each batch is for 6 months.
What is it like to be an EJ?
You can hear about the experiences of the earlier EJs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjFomHQDhDI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIeNwGLCtPc
Who can be part of the program?
Any English speaking student, whether homeschooled or in formal school, can be a part of the program, if they are between between the ages of 10-18 (last completed year as on August 1, 2022).
International students (students not based in India) are welcome to apply. The training timings are in IST and they may need to check if that works. Usually, we find that regions from Sydney to Europe work very well because our program timings are within their day hours. Since all modules are held on the weekend, there is no issue.
What are the charges?
The registration fee is 1000 rs.
After that, there are no charges. No processing fee, no training fee, no certification fee, no exam fee, nothing.
We bear all the expenses, including the expenses for the training and examination of all selected students.
Selection is based entirely on the aptitude of the child.
What all will the training cover?
The training has the following modules:
- Understanding Journalism
- The Anatomy of Bias – Understanding our own biases and the biases around us
- How to Review – Grammar, Structure, Bias elimination
- How to select news for kids
- Research and Writing – How to research and then simplify a topic
- Photo journalism – Good photography
- Taking interviews
- Taking Video Interviews
- News Journalism – Writing news on contentious issues
- Finding the right picture – neutrality in images
- Research for news journalism – how we ensure that we find, and present all the pertinent perspectives
- Saying No to a story
- The power of voice – Voice modulation
- Video Journalism
- Finding your niche – a freewheeling discussion on what you would like to do in journalism
Great! How do I join?
You can register here. After registration, you will be taken to the selection form.
You can copy the link to the selection form and fill it up later also. Please budget for about 30-40 minutes to fill up the form.
Important Dates
Entries Open: 11th August 2022
Entries Close: 25th August 2022
Results: 31st August 2022
FAQs
- I love the training. Can I just join the training please?
Yes! Many parents and students have asked for this in the last 1.5 years, so this year, you CAN join only for the training. The training fee is 20,000 per student. This includes the training, examination, and certification fee – all combined, and taxes included.
You will get a participation certificate if you do not clear the assignments, and an achievement certificate if you pass the program assignments.
There is no selection if you want to just attend the training. You can go straight to the training. The training will be held along with the EJ batch.
To pay the training fee to register only for the training, please click here.
2. When will the trainings be held?
The trainings are likely to begin between Sep 20 – 30. All training sessions are virtual and can be seen at your convenience during the week. There is a 30-60 minute group huddle over the weekend, which students should attend.
3. When do we start writing for the website?
By October 30th, you should be a real journalist, writing for the website.
4. How much time will an EJ have to devote to this activity?
During training, about 3-4 hours per week. 2 of these hours have to be on the weekend, and the other 2 hours at the student’s convenience.
Once you are an EJ, it is 1-6 hours per week, depending on your interest and choice.
A research story can take up to 5-6 hours, while a regular news story is usually done in 1-2 hours, including review, grammar check, etc.
I want my daughter to join