The Metcalf Institute Environmental Reporting Fellowships provided under-represented racial and ethnic minority journalists with an opportunity to learn basic science, gain environmental research and reporting skills, and apply new knowledge and skills in an environmental reporting assignment.

The Environmental Reporting Fellowships consisted of four weeks of study that integrated science and environmental justice issues at the University of Rhode Island with science faculty mentors, including an orientation and immersion workshop, and 37 weeks of reporting on science and the environment with reporter and editor mentors at major news outlets around the U.S.

Fellows worked in radio, television, print and web outlets such as: The New York Times; PRI’s The World; The American Prospect; CNN/CNN.com Live; Chicago Tribune/chicagotribune.com; The Christian Science Monitor; Minnesota Public Radio; National Geographic; NOVA Science Television; The Providence Journal; The Boston Globe; and Talk of the Nation: Science Friday.

Eligible journalists were required to have a minimum of two years of professional journalism experience, U.S. citizenship, and a demonstrated interest in improving their environmental and science reporting skills.

The Environmental Reporting Fellowships were funded primarily by Grant No. 0503497 from the Geosciences Division of the National Science Foundation. From 2006 to 2008, this program was called Diversity Fellowships in Environmental Reporting. Additional funding was provided by The Providence Journal Charitable Foundation. From 2001 to 2002, the original Environmental Reporting Fellowship was funded by the Sharpe Family Foundation.