Casa Pueblo launches journalism scholarship
The scholarship offers a stipend, mentoring and residency to promote solutions-focused stories in Puerto Rico.
Casa Pueblo, a community-based self-management organization, is accepting applications for the Jennifer Wolff-Conde Solutions Journalism Scholarship-Internship.
This program is designed to support journalism students or established journalists with a $2,000 stipend, lodging at Casa Pueblo for four to six weeks, access to editing and recording equipment, and technical production support.
Additionally, the scholarship recipient will receive up to five hours of mentoring from veteran journalists at Radio Casa Pueblo and the newspaper Adjuntas Pueblo Solar.
“The experience aims to contribute to the training of journalism students or established journalists in the type of proactive journalism in favor of the sustainable development of communities,” said Arturo Massol-Deyá, executive director of Casa Pueblo. “We have received many scholarship recipients from universities outside of Puerto Rico, but this scholarship is … for a Puerto Rican from here or from the diaspora.”
The purpose of the scholarship is to promote journalism that highlights, describes and scrutinizes responses to systemic, institutional and structural problems, thereby diversifying the range of stories about daily life in Puerto Rico.
The proposals must focus on topics of interest to Casa Pueblo, such as energy, biodiversity, protection of natural resources, equity and self-management.
Participants are expected to design, develop and publish a story in a multimedia format, engage with the community, and assist in community tasks.
Interested candidates must complete the application form available at Casa Pueblo’s website by Oct. 15.
Casa Pueblo will award the first of a series of annual scholarships to career or student journalists who will develop a solutions story over a month in the summer of 2025 in Adjuntas.
The first scholarship recipient will be announced in December following a blind evaluation process led by an advisory committee.
Jennifer Wolff-Conde was a prominent Puerto Rican journalist, communicator and historian recognized for her career in television and investigative journalism.
Upon learning that her death was imminent, Wolff-Conde left Casa Pueblo a significant financial legacy to support community efforts.
Casa Pueblo was founded in Adjuntas in 1980 and is known for its campaigns to protect the central region of Puerto Rico and its vital watersheds from an open-pit mining project and a large gas pipeline proposal.
Following Hurricane Maria, Casa Pueblo led a community aid response focused on transitioning Puerto Rico from reliance on fossil fuels to achieving energy independence through local, clean and renewable sources.
