College Course 2025
Explore your calling and sharpen your skills in journalism as a Christian.
Never in history has it been so crucial to have access to sound, well-reported news. Amid a field full of distrust and fake news, WORLD Journalism Institute exists to engage, equip, connect, and encourage Christians called to use their gifts in the field of journalism.
Are you ready to join us in redeeming the field of journalism by engaging your gifts?
About WJI College
WORLD Journalism Institute’s College Course is a two-week multimedia journalism intensive for college students and recent graduates who want to expand their reporting skills and explore a calling in journalism.
Each year the 32 applicants accepted to the course will learn to report the news with biblical objectivity through classroom instruction and boots-on-the-ground reporting for print, digital, audio, and video platforms.
About fifteen experienced journalists who are invested in training the next generation of reporters will instruct, edit the students' work line-by-line, and build relationships with them.
During the first week, students will complete a variety of multimedia projects. Based on their interest and skills, instructors will place them in a track for the second week. In their track, they will specific instruction and projects in:
broadcast for audio or video
feature writing
digital news writing
Students don’t only gain practical reporting tools at WJI. They will also connect with a community of other journalists who are invested in their faith!
Location, Dates, and Accommodations
The WJI College Course 2025 will be hosted on the campus of Dordt University in Iowa from Thursday, May 15 to Saturday, May 31.
Students will use Dordt’s classrooms, stay in dorms, eat in the cafeteria, and have access to Adobe Premiere and Audition on the computers in the digital media lab.
Read more information about Dordt here.
Opportunities and Takeaways
During WJI, participants will:
Report for multiple platforms including magazine, digital, and broadcast, and gain proficiency with Adobe Premier and Audition
Learn how the Bible informs reporting and the craft of storytelling
Fellowship with a community of Christians seeking to use media for God’s glory
Develop a portfolio of publish-ready journalistic pieces in multiple mediums
Participants who produce excellent work during the course have their work published on WORLD News Group platforms including wng.org and The World and Everything In It.
Following the course, WJI students are eligible for a paid, four-to-eight-week internship with WORLD News Group and to become freelance writers for WORLD.
WJI is a prerequisite for anyone interested in writing for WORLD and is an opportunity to build relationships with editors and reporters and learn the ethos and journalistic ethics at WORLD.
Strong Candidates Display These Traits
We invite Christians who are seeking to engage their mission field and skills through reporting with a biblical worldview. Current college students and recent college graduates of 2025 are eligible to apply. Two years of college credit, experience working for a publication, and/or published work adds to the likelihood of being accepted to this competitive course.
Ideal candidates will also:
Have a strong Christian faith grounded in Scripture
A desire to use their gifts
Display a curiosity about the world and a love for communicating stories
have familiarity with or interested in journalism
This intensive is designed to stretch participants of all skill levels. They will explore how their calling, skills, and interests align by completing practical field assignments on tight deadlines. Those eager to gain the confidence and skills necessary for a successful career in journalism are welcome to apply.
Please apply to the 2025 Young Professionals Course if you are a young professional or graduated in 2024 or before.
Cost
Accepted students receive a full scholarship that covers tuition, housing, and meals. Our mission is to develop and equip the next generation of journalists to hone their craft and report from a biblically objective worldview, and donors give generously to help us accomplish our mission! For that reason, we have a very intense application process. Students only need to pay their travel costs to and from North West Iowa. More travel details will be provided upon acceptance or request.
Application Process
The early bird deadline is Friday, January 3, 2025.
The final deadline to apply is Friday, March 28, 2025.
Applicants will receive a confirmation that their application has been received within three business days and may be asked for a preliminary phone interview.
Invitations to RSVP will be extended to selected candidates two weeks following the early bird deadline and one week following the final deadline.
Applicants accepted to the course will also be notified of pre-course assignments and an equipment list.
Interested? APPLY NOW.
Please contact office@worldji.com if you have any questions, are curious about which course is best for you, or would like an update regarding your application.
WORLD News Group and WORLD Journalism Institute
WORLD’s mission is to share biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires. WJI helps WORLD accomplish its mission by training journalists who are ready to engage their calling by working for a small Christian publication, in mainstream media, a local newspaper, or in a different field altogether.
Read more about the history of WORLD here.
Required Reading
- Accepted students will be contacted directly for required reading and equipment to bring.
Curriculum:
The course includes instruction on how a Christian worldview informs journalism and practically the nuts and bolts of backpack journalism for convergent media. Instructors blend in-person, individual instruction and feedback with hands-on reporting experiences to teach students how to tell stories informed by a Biblical foundation in print, online, and on the air.
Students will improve their interviewing techniques and journalistic style, and gain training from professionals in broadcast for audio and video, and writing for print and digital platforms. Class periods will include:
- short lectures
- practical field reporting in the community
- discussion and editing sessions of students' work
The intensive course includes pre-class assignments followed by two weeks of in-person class in Sioux Center, Iowa.
We want to maximize reporting, analyzing, and editing time when we are together, so students will have reading assignments. Readings may address topics such as story development, sources of information, interviewing, investigations, accuracy, writing styles, grammar and usage, journalism history, ethics, etc.
Students will write two stories for experienced editor Russell Pulliam will read and and offer edits. The students should be prepared to respond to Mr. Pulliam's e-mail comments, make the corrections, and resubmit their pieces through several rounds of editing. Students will also edit the obituary they wrote for their application for potential publication in WORLD Magazine.
During and after WJI, students will have the opportunity to have their work published on WORLD News Group platforms. Students who demonstrate exceptional reporting aptitude and are interested in continuing work with WORLD may be selected for an 8-week, paid internship.
First day:
Arrivals and check-ins all-day
Dinner, Introductions, and Tour of Campus
Day One:
Reporting Workshop with Lee Pitts
Depart and Report
Writing Workshop: Editing
Midnight Deadline
Day Two:
Church
Activity
Movie Night
Day Three:
Introduction to WORLD Broadcast with The World and Everything In It hosts Nick Eicher and Myrna Brown
Lecture: Worldview Journalism and Newspaper Storytelling
Writing Workshop: Profiles
WORLD Broadcast: Stand-Ups Ups Prep and Exercise
News Huddle
Day Four:
Practice Press Conference and Debrief
Lecture: Worldview Journalism and Biblical Objectivity
Lunch with Guest Speaker
Lecture: Thinking About Stories and Journalistic Writing Style
Writing Workshop: Revising Obits
Workshop: Additional Video Editing and Camera Training
News Huddle
Week Two Sample Day:
Workshop: Script Writing and Editing
Reporting: Time to work on track assignment
Evening Activity
Instructors: *may include but are not limited to the following journalists
Les Sillars
Les has worked with WORLD News Group since 1999 as a writer, editor, and producer and is now editor-in-chief. He also directs the journalism program at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va.
Lee Pitts
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 currently leads the journalism program at Dordt University.
What Have Other WJI Grads Said?
"If you’re considering applying to WJI, do it! It’s a fun, challenging, and invigorating experience, and will give you the tools and confidence you need to enter the world of journalism. Plus, you’ll make friends, learn from fantastic writing teachers, and get on-the-ground reporting experience...I learned that being introverted is no excuse to stay inside my comfort zone—you have to get out there and talk to people to write good stories. I learned the basic structure of a good article, concise writing, and the value of a Biblical worldview, which sees truth-telling as the goal of journalism and people as made in the image of God, worthy of our respect and attention."
"At WJI, I learned that I didn't just like to write. I loved being curious. I loved talking to all kinds of people with all kinds of experiences and telling their story--in all its nitty-gritty detail--in a compelling way. I learned that journalism is a tool to showcase God's world, both the brokenness caused by sin and the hope of redemption. Now I get paid to tell peoples' stories and explore how they point to God's bigger story. But even if that's not always the case, I don't ever want to stop."
"I valued the writing feedback and the push to practice journalism in the real world. It prepped me for the career I'm in now—the ability to ask good questions and write down the details."
“I think my life trajectory has changed because of this community. The collection of people that God has put together has so much potential, nay power, to do good in the world moving forward. Every day [of this course], I feel so honored and grateful to be amongst some of the world’s finest journalists, writers, editors, and technicians, to learn from them, to laugh with them, to live with them, even if only for two weeks. It may seem like I am exaggerating, but honestly, the blessing of having this sort of community is so beautiful.”
"I feel as though I am being trained to cherish the specific: the dirt beneath polished fingernails, the watch face worn on the inside of the wrist, recycled church pews being used for seating in a coffee shop, 'call this number for help tear away paper with missing slips. As a journalist – as a person – I am learning to interpret the significance of details. In a world that screams that nothing matters and that truth is simply a figure of speech signifying nothing (thanks to Dr. Olasky for that one), it is refreshing to learn from people who still believe in meaning."