Due to the impact of COVID-19 on schools and students, we will be extending the scholarship deadline to May 1st, 2020. the free pass prize to the annual CAJ conference will not be offered this year as the conference for 2020 has been cancelled.There are currently no virtual conference alternatives or substitution prizes available.
If you’re a student who just started your major in journalism, or have already been doing journalistic work for a school paper, we’ve got some exciting news that you’ll enjoy.
We’re proud to announce today the launch of our new annual Investintech – CAJ Data Journalism Scholarship!
Partnering with the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), a major journalism organization that supports and encourages excellence in journalism across Canada, our aim is to help the future generation of journalists like you.
We know that Able2Extract is being used by data journalists to extract PDF data into Excel spreadsheets for analysis. Their ultimate goal? To write news stories that are backed by accurate and credible data.
In this day and age of fake news, though, this level of credibility can be undermined. As such, there is a growing call for journalists to dig deeper into large amounts of digital data and analysis.
This takes skill training, time, and money–all of which can work against you as you continue to work and study your way into the industry.
About The Investintech – CAJ Data Journalism Scholarship
By setting up this scholarship, Investintech is aiming to help you pay for your education with a one time prize of $1,000 CAD that will go towards your tuition fees. In addition, the student will receive a free one year membership with the CAJ and a free pass to the annual national CAJ conference.
The scholarship prize will go to one Canadian student who exhibits a good understanding of the journalism industry. Students must be:
- Majoring in a journalism program, working towards either a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree.
- Currently accepted to or enrolled in a college or university in Canada.
- Pursuing a course of studies leading to an undergraduate or graduate degree in journalism.
To enter, you need to fill out an online form with your information and upload your submission which must include:
- An example of a work of journalism that shows the application of data skills (e.g. use of spreadsheets, web scraping, use of mapping tool).
- An explanation of what you did and how you did it, including the resources you used.
- An idea for a project you would like to work on, particularly if you had more data journalism skills.
- A letter of support from an instructor or editor.
Other general rules:
- Submitted work may be a published item, class assignment or even an item on a personal blog.
- Work must have been produced within one calendar year of the scholarship closing date.
- Individual work is preferred. If submitted item is produced as part of a team of two or more, applicant must have done the bulk of the work.
- Previous winners are not eligible to apply.
To ensure that submissions are reviewed appropriately, we’ve teamed up with the CAJ to create a jury that includes judges with extensive experience and multiple writing credentials at notable and authoritative publications. The official selection committee that will determine the winning submission will include one Investintech.com representative and one CAJ member to provide input during the selection process.
Each jury member will be carefully selected, reviewed, and recommended by the CAJ. Journalists will be chosen based on their background, experience, and area of expertise. At least one of these members will be fluent in French to help evaluate submissions that are in French.
To learn more about the writing credentials and journalism experience of the selection jury members, please visit the Data Journalist Scholarship Selection Jury page.
You’ll get your work reviewed and read by professional data journalists in the industry.
Your submission will go through a review process that focuses on the quality of your work. We’ll be reading your work with the following in mind:
- Follow all submission rules and complete full details
- Submissions must be in English or in French
- Minimum word count for written parts of the submission: 500
- Previously published material can be submitted
- Restricted to students enrolled in a Canadian university or college
- Creativity and style; coherence and readability
- Inclusion of major sources (authoritative sources linked to back claims)
- Effective use of data, visualizations, and/or medium being used
- Strength of the topic and the applicant’s work
The Selection Jury will review all submissions. They will narrow the number of applications down to a longlist of 10 candidates, and will go on to select a shortlist of 5 candidates. A winner from those 5 candidates will then be selected. The winner will be announced on May 16, 2020.
Submissions are due by May 1, 2020, at 11:59 pm EST.
Important Dates And Deadlines
*Updated as of March 26, 2020
- Annual deadline for submissions: May 1, 2020
- Review timeframe: May 1, 2020 – May 15, 2020
- Announcement date: May 16, 2020
- Award date for 2019-20 scholarship year: May 17, 2020
If you’re starting out your career as a data journalist, you can submit your entry by visiting the Investintech – CAJ Data Journalism Scholarship page.
Questions or comments? Send us an email at scholarships@investintech.com.
Best of luck to everyone!