College Course 2023
Last May, we had 26 students from 17 states and three countries attend our hands-on course at Dordt University. The WJI program strengthens student's ability to communicate and report. We focus on the best storytelling techniques for newspaper, magazine, radio, and video. Keeping class sizes small, students are given individual attention and mentoring from journalists with decades of reporting experience from around the world. Students also have opportunities through the program to get their work published. WJI students receive a full scholarship that includes tuition, housing and meals. We believe so much in our mission of developing the next generation of journalists, that we invest in them as they invest in their craft.
Our journalism course at Northwest Iowa's Dordt University gives college journalists and recent graduates who are Christians the basics they need to maximize their journalistic job opportunities.
The course emphasizes news/feature writing and reporting for either secular publications or World News Group products: magazine, website, and radio. Students will learn to think through stories Christianly and improve their marketable skills for the digital age by receiving training in photography, videography, and sound from top professionals.
Experience
WJI students are eligible for paid internships with the World News Group.
*Applications for Summer 2022 are now closed. Summer 2023 applications will open this Fall.*
If you have trouble submitting your application, please contact office@worldji.com.
Required Reading
- Accepted students will be contacted directly for required reading and items to bring.
Curriculum:
The WJI course includes instruction in Christian worldview and the nuts and bolts of backpack journalism for convergent media. The intensive course includes pre-class assignments followed by two weeks of class residency.
This is a course in news/feature writing and reporting, designed to help young journalists (college and early career) think through stories Christianly and improve their marketable skills for the digital age. Students will generate a series of multimedia articles for their professional portfolios.
Students will improve their interviewing techniques and journalistic style, and gain training from professionals in photography, videography, and audio work. Class periods will include short lectures but emphasize discussion and analyzing/editing students' stories.
We want to maximize reporting, analyzing, and editing time when we are together, so students will read in advance what we might otherwise offer in lectures. Readings may address topics such as story development, sources of information, interviewing, investigations, accuracy, writing styles, grammar and usage, film and book reviewing, journalism history, ethics, etc.
Students will write two stories that experienced editor Russell Pulliam will read and critique. The students should be prepared to respond to Mr. Pulliam's e-mail comments as quickly as possible. Students will also write one obituary for potential publication in World.
Students should expect to spend 10 hours a day—except on Sunday.
Selected students will gain more reporting, writing, and video/audio experience. These students will publish their work on Worldmag.com or in local newspapers. Please contact Office@gwpub.com for more specific information.
Course Calendar
Instructors: *may include but are not limited to the following journalists
WORLD Editors and Reporters
Nick Eicher
WORLD Radio
Nick Eicher is executive producer of WORLD Radio. He has been a broadcast and print journalist for over three decades. He has served WORLD magazine as a writer and reporter, editor, managing editor and publisher. He served as CEO of WORLD’s parent corporation, God’s World Publications, where he oversaw the publication of WORLD as well as the training program of the World Journalism Institute. In his spare time, Nick has taught editing and story structure for WJI. He has also served his duty in government and politics—as a press secretary to U.S. Rep. John W. “Jack” Buechner in Washington (1986-88) and then as press secretary for the Mark F. “Thor” Hearne congressional campaign (‘88). Eicher started broadcasting as a high-schooler (KYMC-FM, WCBW-FM, St. Louis), earned a news anchor position as a freshman (KCOU, Columbia) at the University of Missouri, became news director of KSIV-AM, St. Louis, while finishing his degree at Southern Illinois University and served as reporter at KMOX-AM, St. Louis, the summer after graduation.
Russell Pulliam
Indianapolis Star
Russ is the Associate Editor of The Indianapolis Star and Director of Pulliam Fellowship Program. In the past, he has been a reporter for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Springfield Union, The Indianapolis News, The Indianapolis Star, and the Associated Press. He is the author of Publisher: Gene Pulliam, Last of the Newspaper Titans and a WJI monograph collection of his columns. Pulliam has earned numerous journalistic awards and has his B.A. from Williams College.
Lee Pitts
Associate Dean, World Journalism Institute
As Washington Bureau Chief for WORLD magazine for more than five years, Lee's assignments sent him from Capitol Hill to the White House to the Supreme Court. But his reporting also has taken him beyond the Capital Beltway. Leading up to the 2010 elections, Lee embarked on a 10-day, 4,225 mile cross-country trip through competitive congressional districts in 16 states. In 2004-2005, as a reporter for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Lee embedded with a National Guard Regimental Combat unit in Iraq for nearly 7 months, going on humanitarian and combat missions. Before joining WORLD, Lee served as press secretary for U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander. Now in his fifteenth year in the media world, Lee earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and now leads the journalism program at Dordt University.
Mark Volkers
Dordt University
After serving for seven years as a missionary in an African village, Mark Volkers traveled the planet for a decade as a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker for Christian organizations. His films about the cultures, people and places of the world have earned him over 50 national and international awards. Mark continues to make films but now as a professor of digital media at Dordt University in Iowa. Students in the program are involved in storytelling in all corners of the globe, and have won numerous awards for their work.
Paul Butler
WORLD Radio
Paul is the executive producer and features editor for WORLD Radio as well as senior producer for the Effective Compassion and Legal Docket podcasts. He is a World Journalism Institute graduate, a Moody Radio alum, a pastor, and a former college professor. He resides with his family in Arlington, Ill.
Les Sillars
WORLD Magazine
Les is a WORLD Radio correspondent and commentator. He previously spent two decades as WORLD Magazine's Mailbag editor. Les directs the journalism program at Patrick Henry College and resides in Purcellville, Va., with his family.
Program Price
*We are currently planning for this course to be in person on the Dordt University campus with appropriate social distancing measures in place.*
Accepted students will receive a full scholarship upon admission to WJI. The 2022 scholarship will cover the full cost of tuition and most meals (lunches and dinners) while in the program. Students will be responsible for bringing individual class equipment which will be explained upon admission to WJI.
Applications for Summer 2022 are now closed. Summer 2023 applications will open this Fall.
