Mid-Career Course 2023
If God is in control of history’s events, how should a Christian report on politics, wars, natural disasters, the economy, technology, the arts, marriage and gender issues?
WORLD’s annual mid-career course is an intensive training in reporting and writing magazine, website, and radio stories from a Christian worldview. The next course will be hosted in Asheville, NC from March 5-11, 2023. We will begin with a welcome dinner on Sunday, March 5, and end with a farewell breakfast on Saturday, March 11th. Students will stay at a local hotel.
Over this five-day course, we will explore how to report from a biblical perspective, and how scripture informs the craft of storytelling. Applicants will who are seeking to take their journalism career to the next level and amateurs hoping to hone their writing skills are both welcome. During the course of the week, students will:
- rewrite their application obituary
- write a profile and website story
- collaborate to write part of a feature story
- propose a WORLD notebook story
- discuss worldview and Christian journalism
Tuition and board are free and a meal plan is available. We will provide breakfast and lunch. Dinners are on your own.
The course leads to opportunities for those with talent and drive to report for WORLD within their metropolitan area or field of expertise and access to WJI Network. Approximately 100 people have attended WJI's Mid-Career course from all careers and backgrounds. Today many are WORLD reporters, editors, or occasional correspondents.
All seats for the March 2023 course are filled. If you are interested in this course, please email office@worldji.com if you have questions, would like to be notified when the 2024 course application is open or would like to apply to be on the waitlist.
Required Reading
- Strunk and White: The Elements of Style
- Marvin Olasky: Reforming Journalism
Required Items
- Gmail account (we will be doing group editing and document sharing through Google Docs, so every student should have a basic understanding of Google Docs)
- Smartphone for taking photos and recording
Curriculum:
The course emphasizes news feature reporting and writing, based on principles of Biblical objectivity. It’s not for those whose goal is to write columns, op. eds., devotionals, exegetical essays, memoirs, fiction, or poetry. It is for those willing to learn about pavement-pounding, phone-calling, document-reading reporting, and about writing with strong verbs and nouns in the active voice. Only those prepared to absorb tough criticism of their writing should attend. The courses will also touch on the history and current state of Christian journalism.
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
Tuition and board is free. Most meals are provided.
The mid-career writing course expanded my horizons: It taught me to write in new ways, for different audiences, and on topics that need attention from a Christian worldview. Sometimes a well-meaning amateur tries to coach your batting swing or tennis serve and ends up disrupting your natural rhythm so badly that you can’t even hit the ball! The mid-career writing course had an opposite effect: coaching by experienced writers sharpened my skills and led to opportunities that I had never anticipated.
I draw from what I learned at the mid-career course on a weekly basis. It was a practical exercise in how to think, write, and edit like a journalist. As a small class, we walked through each step of writing and were able to make mistakes, correct them, throw out ideas, and bounce questions off expert journalists. The mountain of journalism became a hill I could climb because of the mid-career course.
I loved the classes and found the seminar to be very helpful. I especially enjoyed being able to critique each other's writing and do the line by line editing together. The hands-on experience was unbeatable.
WORLD’s mid-career course is fantastic! The course content is outstanding, but even more valuable is the opportunity to learn from one of the Christian world’s most experienced journalists and editors. I gained tremendous confidence through the–fearful–process of Olasky-led group edits. Watching clunky first drafts forged again and again into tight, bracing prose transformed my writing and inspired me to greater success as a writer. I was also impressed by the high-caliber students in the course, men and women who loved the Lord and were serious about improving their craft. Make every effort to attend this course - you won’t be disappointed!
It was immensely helpful for me to be publicly edited and educated at the same time during the course.
My prior opinion about World's high regard for truth and clear understanding of the journalist's calling were confirmed. The week flew by and sometimes it felt like drinking from a fire hose, but I managed to hang onto a number of the pearls that Marvin and Susan so graciously shared with us. Best of all, I have been given the opportunity to write on a regular basis for WNG. I must be making progress, because my word processing program rarely corrects my spelling and grammar anymore.