Applications open for NBTB NOW, fall 2020 election special session

We’re back! And, pleased to announce our Election 2020 session, Oct. 12-Dec. 18.

NBTB NOW will offer 10 weeks of self-paced learning and collaborative teamwork, including:

• weekly Zoom lessons (attend in-person or self-paced, as you choose),

• weekly check-ins and one-on-one coaching with your team leaders, and

• weekly guest speakers drawn from the world of politics and journalism.

Students can learn and earn anytime in our digital badge program, including social media (pictured), digital publishing, broadcast, podcast, digital publishing and reporting and writing, plus new badges for fall 2020.

Participating students are automatically enrolled in our digital badge program, including new badges in Opinion Writing and Political Reporting plus Creating a Digital Journalism Portfolio. The portfolio will include links to badges and published work. Seniors can incorporate a college application essay into their portfolios and will receive additional editing assistance.

And as always, you’ll be part of a team that designs and delivers a digital magazine, broadcast, podcast or website — including live election night coverage on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

NBTB Now builds on our highly successful summer session in which students published five publications and earned digital badges in a variety of practical journalism and communications skills.

Unlike our Summer 2020 session, which met intensively all day every day for two weeks, NBTB NOW is primarily self-paced, with Monday check-ins with your team leader and news team, Tuesday classes available live or on demand, and Thursday guest speakers also live or on demand. All sessions will be held after 3 p.m. PT (6 p.m. ET). 

Assistant program director Jordan Tichenor describes NBTB NOW as “an afterschool mentorship for journalism” structured to give students an opportunity to document an extraordinary time in history despite the unprecedented challenges of remote learning.

“We know students are in classes, they’re in school,” Tichenor said, “so we’re finding a way to help them to produce stories and offer real results as well as rigor.”

Other highlights:

• Program schedule includes one week for badge work and one week for portfolio work
• No class meetings over Thanksgiving break
• Extended schedule through Dec. 18 allows for continuing coverage of election results
• Cost: $1,000 plus $100 application processing fee
• Applications and payments due by Friday, Oct. 2.

Student work by NBTB and its sister organization Global Student Square has been featured by major news organizations, including Global Voices, the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, Voice of America and Chalkbeat, a leading U.S. education news site that republished our summer 2020 interactive project on “What Learning Looks Like” for high school students around the world. 

Ready to report the big story? Apply here, sign up for our mailing list and be sure to pay by Oct. 2.