<commit_before>---
layout: blogpost
title: Network effect&#58; Scholarships can help journalists change whole communities of practice
date: 2019-02-25 12:00
author: <NAME>
tags: OpenNews
excerpt: Our community attends in-person events for a lot of reasons, but a few really stick out&#58; Building relationships that support and sustain us in the work, learning new skills to share with an existing network back home, and opening new doors at critical moments in a career.
published: true
---

<img src="/media/img/blog/scholarships-networking.jpg" style="width: 100%;" alt="Events can help you expand your networks, or plug into new ones.">
<p class="caption" style="margin-top: 5px;">Events can help you expand your networks, or plug into new ones. (Photo/[<NAME>](https://www.flickr.com/photos/triller/2226679393/))</p>

It's no secret that at OpenNews we're fans of getting together in person to talk about journalism. We [organize events](https://srccon.org) of all sizes throughout the year, and we love attending other conferences and convenings as participants, too. When we listen to people who care about the same problems but approach them differently, it helps us imagine new ways to work.

That’s why we make it a priority to help journalists attend events. OpenNews has given out 123 ticket & travel scholarships in just the past three years because we know that when people encounter new tools, new techniques, or engagement strategies that really work, it transforms their practice as journalists.

Our first round of 2019 scholarships will help 17 people in journalism all over the country, and in all types of organizations: local newsrooms in places like Missouri, Vermont, Florida, and Oregon; in schools and as freelancers in places like Texas and Illinois; nonprofits in California; larger organizations in New York and DC. They'll be attending eight different events over the next few months—it's exciting to support so many different experiences, and that's something we're really prioritizing this year.

We also learn a lot each time we offer scholarships. We received nearly 90 applications for this round, and the ideas and goals that people shared with us help us understand what this community cares most deeply about. 

**Key themes we're seeing in 2019**

**Journalists know the value of building relationships outside their own organizations.** That might be the thing our scholarship applicants crave the most—when asked why they wanted to attend _this_ event _this_ year, 28 literally name-checked "networking," and even more used different words to describe the same thing. Plenty of journalists can't look around their newsroom and find a colleague on the same beat, fluent in the same tools, or interested in the same techniques. At the very least it can be hard to find someone who just _thinks differently_ about the work. So meeting someone new to compare notes with, to sharpen ideas, to share what works well and what falls flat, those can be career-changing relationships. 

It can be particularly difficult to make those connections from smaller, local newsrooms—places where even a few new supporters can have an outsized impact. We want to see people invest in their networks because we've seen how it invigorates their journalism and sustains them as human beings doing hard, hard work. It helps keep people in the careers they found so meaningful in the first place.
<commit_msg>bah! html tag vs markdown<commit_after>---
layout: blogpost
title: Network effect&#58; Scholarships can help journalists change whole communities of practice
date: 2019-02-25 12:00
author: <NAME>
tags: OpenNews
excerpt: Our community attends in-person events for a lot of reasons, but a few really stick out&#58; Building relationships that support and sustain us in the work, learning new skills to share with an existing network back home, and opening new doors at critical moments in a career.
published: true
---

<img src="/media/img/blog/scholarships-networking.jpg" style="width: 100%;" alt="Events can help you expand your networks, or plug into new ones.">
<p class="caption" style="margin-top: 5px;">Events can help you expand your networks, or plug into new ones. (Photo/<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/triller/2226679393/"><NAME></a></p>

It's no secret that at OpenNews we're fans of getting together in person to talk about journalism. We [organize events](https://srccon.org) of all sizes throughout the year, and we love attending other conferences and convenings as participants, too. When we listen to people who care about the same problems but approach them differently, it helps us imagine new ways to work.

That’s why we make it a priority to help journalists attend events. OpenNews has given out 123 ticket & travel scholarships in just the past three years because we know that when people encounter new tools, new techniques, or engagement strategies that really work, it transforms their practice as journalists.

Our first round of 2019 scholarships will help 17 people in journalism all over the country, and in all types of organizations: local newsrooms in places like Missouri, Vermont, Florida, and Oregon; in schools and as freelancers in places like Texas and Illinois; nonprofits in California; larger organizations in New York and DC. They'll be attending eight different events over the next few months—it's exciting to support so many different experiences, and that's something we're really prioritizing this year.

We also learn a lot each time we offer scholarships. We received nearly 90 applications for this round, and the ideas and goals that people shared with us help us understand what this community cares most deeply about. 

**Key themes we're seeing in 2019**

**Journalists know the value of building relationships outside their own organizations.** That might be the thing our scholarship applicants crave the most—when asked why they wanted to attend _this_ event _this_ year, 28 literally name-checked "networking," and even more used different words to describe the same thing. Plenty of journalists can't look around their newsroom and find a colleague on the same beat, fluent in the same tools, or interested in the same techniques. At the very least it can be hard to find someone who just _thinks differently_ about the work. So meeting someone new to compare notes with, to sharpen ideas, to share what works well and what falls flat, those can be career-changing relationships. 

It can be particularly difficult to make those connections from smaller, local newsrooms—places where even a few new supporters can have an outsized impact. We want to see people invest in their networks because we've seen how it invigorates their journalism and sustains them as human beings doing hard, hard work. It helps keep people in the careers they found so meaningful in the first place.

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