Applications due by January 31 at 11:59 pm CT
The Chicago Headline Club and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity are accepting applications for the 2025 FOIA Fest Boot Camp, a four-month training and mentorship program for Chicago-based reporters. We seek diverse, talented early-career applicants committed to equity-focused journalism who want guidance in accountability reporting—from story conception to publishing.
Applicants must submit a short proposal for an early-stage project they’d like help developing or publishing.
Selected journalists will receive specialized training and one-on-one mentoring from experienced journalists who can advise on using public records, testing hypotheses, structuring investigations, and placing stories. Fellows will independently conduct research, identify interviews, and complete pre-reporting activities needed to design and pitch their investigative projects.
We strongly encourage early-career journalists who are underrepresented in newsrooms to apply, including journalists of color, and/or from indigenous, working-class, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ backgrounds.
About the Fellowship
Our fellowship program is designed for emerging journalists who have been published on any media platform, have the skills to tackle a reporting project on a critical racial equity issue in Chicago, and the desire to deepen their use of public records and other investigative tools.
What will I have to provide when I apply?
You can preview the full application here. Submit through the live application link here.
- Briefly describe your proposed project and how you would use public records to report it. It’s OK if you don’t have a fully developed idea, but give us a sense of a topic you’d like to (and will reasonably be able to) pursue over four months. (300 words max)
- Name and/or description of your ideal mentor(s). We will do our best to connect you with your requested mentor (200 words max)
- 1-2 samples of published work (any medium) and how they demonstrate your ability to investigate complex topics on racial or social equity.
- Your resume
FOIA Fest Bootcamp Fellows Receive:
- $500 stipend
- Free admission to FOIA Fest, a day-long conference sponsored by the Headline Club
- Social events with former Bootcamp alumni and other prominent investigative journalists in Chicago
- Monthly skills-building webinars
- Four months of professional/project coaching
Read more about our 2024 Fellows and Instructors
Past Cohorts 2023 Boot Camp Cohort | 2022 Boot Camp Cohort | 2021 Boot Camp Cohort
Timeline
Completed applications are due by January 31, 2025. In February, we will review the applications and select the finalists. Selected fellows will be announced in late February. From March 2025, the program will run over a four-month period. It is slated to begin with the day-long FOIA Fest conference on March 22 and conclude around June 2025.
Questions?
Please don’t hesitate to contact Wendy Wei, the Investigative Project’s training coordinator, at wendy@raceandequityproject.org if you have any questions. We’re here to support you!