June 26-30, 2007: Great Lakes Environmental Journalism Training Institute

Learn environmental science from scientists and return home with a passel of story ideas before your boss even knows that you are gone.

And have fun doing it: Participants in this year’s Great Lakes Environmental Journalism Training Institute stay at an environmental research center nestled in the forest along northern Michigan’s beautiful Douglas Lake.

Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism’s ninth institute for Great Lakes regional reporters runs from June 26 to June 30 of 2007.

U.S. and Canadian journalists who cover the environment in the Great Lakes region meet with top experts and veteran reporters as part of this longstanding and popular program. They’ll learn about environmental issues confronting the region, go on field trips and learn computer-assisted reporting techniques.

And they’ll meet with scientists and learn about doing science. Fellowship winners this year stay at the University of Michigan Biological Station, near Pellston, Mich. They’ll eat, live and learn with scientists, faculty and students at this northern Michigan environmental research and education center.

Among the issues they’ll be exposed to: endangered and invasive species, water quality, climate change, bio-fuels, forests, lake levels, wind power. They will collect and analyze plankton and algae and learn how the interaction between trees and the atmosphere is measured far above the forest canopy.

Participants must be journalists who cover the environment at least part time, and come from any of the U.S. states or the Canadian provinces that border the Great Lakes. Up to 25 print, broadcast, online and freelance journalists are selected.

The cost to participants is just $95. Fellows also must arrange their own travel to Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., where the institute begins the evening of June 26.

Applications, along with resumes, should be postmarked by April 27, 2007. You may include samples of your work in the application. Fellowship winners will be notified by mid-May. There is no cost to apply. Send applications to:
Knight Center for Environmental Journalism
382 Communication Arts & Sciences Building East Lansing, MI 48824-1212

Watch the Knight Center’s site for institute updates. A description of previous institutes is available here.

Speakers:
Since 1996, more than 200 U.S. and Canadian journalists have attended the institute. Many prominent journalists have spoken at them, including Andrew Revkin, national environmental reporter for the New York Times, Margaret Kriz, energy and environment reporter for the Washington D.C.-based National Journal, and Dennis Dimick, executive editor of National Geographic Magazine.

This year’s program is supported by the George Gund Foundation, MSU’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and the MSU Department of Journalism.

Questions? Contact Knight Center Associate Director David Poulson, poulson@msu.edu, (517) 432 5417.