2024 Solutions Journalism Educators Academy
July 10-11
Stony Brook, NY
Call for Applications and Conference Information
Designed for university journalism faculty members interested in learning how to teach solutions journalism at the collegiate level.
Even if you’ve already taught a course or module, you’re welcome to apply.
About the Academy
Offered in partnership with the Solutions Journalism Network
The Academy covers teaching the solutions journalism framework to inform diverse and inclusive stories and sources; community engagement and interviewing; story structure; creating learning goals and objectives; and refining assignments and instructional activities. The urgent topic of student mental health will be a focus of the training, as educators consider strategies to report beyond the factors that have led to a rise in the levels of anxiety, depression and suicide on our nation's campuses, looking toward emerging solutions.
Learn more about the Solutions Journalism Network
During the conference, attendees will work and learn in some of the SoCJ's state-of-the-art spaces: our two-story newsroom and production studio.
Explore our Facilities
Application Information
To apply to participate in the Educators Academy, you must be a full-time educator at a recognized US-based journalism program.
Why Stony Brook University?
As the number and kind of solutions journalism courses grow at the undergraduate and
graduate levels, fresh ideas and teaching strategies are emerging.
Venturing beyond the basics, the Academy will dive deeply into lessons learned and advanced topics in teaching SoJo, sharing wisdom gleaned from SJN’s growing number of journalism school partners.
The School of Communication and Journalism was designated one of four inaugural Solutions Journalism Hubs in 2022. It is home to a solutions-centered graduate journalism program, where students have hands-on experience in creating and distributing solutions stories and analysis.
We are interested in expanding our diverse and inclusive set of solutions journalism education practices to be better tailored to our institutions and students’ needs. The two-day event promises to be a highly interactive, participant-driven experience. Ample time will be available for participants to network, brainstorm, and test materials that can be used in the classroom.
The Academy also aligns with the mission of the SoCJ’s Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting, in reporting on complex narratives around conflict experienced both at home and
abroad. The center’s executive director, Sarah Baxter, a well-known editor and foreign correspondent working mostly in North America for
London’s Sunday Times, will lead the Academy. Baxter also is leading a cohort of students
exploring responses to trauma experienced by student and emerging journalists as part
of the SJN’s Student Media Challenge.
The two-day event will also feature J.D. Allen, journalism lecturer and managing editor of WSHU Public Radio. Allen, who is an SJN-accredited solutions journalism trainer, is responsible for designing the SoCJ solutions-centered curriculum and oversees a popular internship opportunity in producing solutions stories that are distributed to NPR member stations. He was the winner of the inaugural National Academies Award for Excellence in Science Communication for his WSHU podcast, Higher Ground, that took a solutions-oriented approach to climate change and adaptation around the Long Island Sound.
The Academy is made possible with a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network, with funding from the Stony Brook Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives.