Spring ‘22 NYCJ students learn what it takes to make it in New York, studying and interning in the city as the pandemic eases

Students taking part in the NYC Semester in Journalism program have spent the past two months covering important local and national news stories as the world slowly emerges from COVID-19. 

This semester’s students followed in the footsteps of past NYCJ classes by participating in the unique semester-long, off-campus study program operated by the McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute at The King’s College in NYC.

After two years when internships were remote, many are now hybrid while classes at King’s are back in person. 

“I would absolutely recommend NYCJ to anybody who thinks journalism may be a career they pursue seriously,” said Banks Halvorson, who hails from Covenant College in Georgia and is currently interning at the Brooklyn Paper.

“The experience of working with newspapers in the media capital of America is priceless, and the classes you take and people you meet are incredible. I was excited about this program, but it has blown all my expectations out of the water.”  

Students taking part in the 14th NYCJ cohort that chose to make New York their home this semester. The students are enrolled in classes, including History of Journalism and New York City with Prof. Clemente Lisi and Entrepreneurial Journalism with Prof. Paul Glader. Under Glader’s guidance, the students work 20 hours per week in a New York newsroom, earning six academic credits and pursuing bylines.

Paige Taylor, a student from Abilene Christian University in Texas, is currently an intern at Bold TV. She said her internship and courses — in addition to living in New York City — has made this semester a unique experience.  

“Living and working in New York is much more fast paced than I anticipated,” she added, “but I adapted very quickly and have actually grown to love the hustle and bustle.” 

Esther Wickham, a King’s student who is taking part in NYCJ this spring, said her internship at amNewYork and living in the city has given her a chance to gain valuable experience needed for her to get a job once she graduates. 

“I would definitely recommend the program! It grants you the opportunity that the current college you attend can't give you,” she said. “Living in New York City during your college years while pursuing a career in journalism with highly skilled and talented professors that have been in the journalism field for decades is a dream many have.” 

Camila da Silva, a student who attends the Sao Paulo-based Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Brazil, is spending the semester as an intern with Religion Unplugged. She said her favorite class was History of Journalism, a course that looks at coverage of various events in U.S. history, including the 9/11 attacks, and the beliefs, values and character that goes with working in a New York newsroom.

“It brings together what we can learn from the past and perspectives for building modern journalism,” she said. 

Both Taylor and Wickham are taking Religion Reporting this semester, giving students yet another chance to get bylines since the advanced reporting class works closely with ReligionUnplugged.com. The non-profit religion news website, which has offices at TKC, is part of The Media Project. 

“We have gone really in depth on reporting and getting outside of our comfort zone when it comes to reporting on topics we are not very familiar with,” Taylor said. “I have learned so much about reporting.” 

The New York City Semester program partners with more than 41 universities and colleges across the U.S. and the world. Students can apply to join the program for a future semester by clicking here. 

The McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute welcomes the NYCJ class of Fall 2021

NEW YORK — The 13th class of the NYC Semester in Journalism arrived in late August from across the United States and one from Brazil. The class of 13 students represent nine colleges and universities. 

The students will participate in a unique semester-long, off-campus study program operated by the McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute at The King’s College in New York. They will spend the semester living in student housing at King’s, where they will engage in a journalism-intensive semester, including taking classes such as Entrepreneurial Journalism with Prof. Paul Glader, a former reporter at The Wall Street Journal and founder of VettNews.com.   

Under the guidance of both Glader and Prof. Clemente Lisi, a former editor at the New York Post, students will earn six academic credits pursuing at least one byline or video credit per week for their portfolios. 

The New York City Semester program partners with 41 colleges and universities across the nation and globe. Apply to become a partner school by contacting Paul Glader at pglader@tkc.edu. Apply to join us as a student for a future semester by clicking here. 

Here is a roster of the NYCJ Fall 2021 class: 

Leocciano Callao 

A native of The Philippines, Leocciano hails from Providence Christian College in Pasadena, Calif. He is interning at the Brooklyn Paper this semester.   
 

Anna Carlson

Anna attends Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. She previously worked for The Point Weekly, Point Loma’s student media outlet. She is interning at Newsweek.  

Julia Findley 

A digital communication and design manager, Findey is a student at William Jessup University in Rocklin, Calif. She is interning at Bold TV.  

Alyssa Flores 

Alyssa also attends William Jessup, studying marketing and communications. She is interning at Bold TV.    

Haeven Gibbons 

A journalism major and Spanish minor, Gibbons is a student at Texas Christian University in Dallas. She previously interned at The Media Project, which is based at King’s, and is currently an intern at amNewYork.  

Ashley Grams

Ashley is a broadcast journalism major at Biola University outside Los Angeles. She is interning at NBC New York.



Nyckole Holguin 

Nyckole is a student at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, studying broadcast journalism. She is interning at amNewYork.  

Alyse Messmer 

Alyse is a student at Cal Baptist University located near Los Angeles. She is interning at Newsweek.   

Katelyn Quisenberry

A student who attends Biola University outside Los Angeles, Katelyn is interning at Bold TV.   

Sofia Kioko Saleem Khan 

Sofia hails from Brazil and attends Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Sao Paulo. She is interning at Religion Unplugged, an Award-winning non-profit news website. 
 

Rebecca Schwind

Rebecca is a student at Biola University outside Los Angeles and has experience at The Chimes, the school’s student-run newspaper. She is interning at Newsweek.  

Jada Williamson 

Jada is a student at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn. She is interning at the Brooklyn Paper.  

Kayla Wong

Kayla attends Point Loma Nazarene University. She is interning at the Queens Courier. 

The McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute is a home of journalism-related programs and majors at The King’s College in NYC. In addition to its academic programs, it hosts events and provides resources to its students, alums, friends and donors. The institute is named in the honor of the legendary reporter at The New York Times who was an exemplar of standards, ethics and style in the craft of journalism and was a kind friend and mentor to those of us who knew him.

An Actor Discovered How Creatives Can Build A Personal Brand on TikTok

Brittin Ward works at The King’s College in NYC as Educational Ventures and Services Administrator. In that role, he helps organize several academic programs at King’s including the Summer Academy for high school students each July and the NYC Semester programs in Journalism and Theater for visiting college students from 41 partner schools.

We knew that Brittin is an aspiring actor, who stared in several theater productions at King’s and in New York City since he graduated from Kings in 2018. So we were excited to learn that Brittin has made the most of the Coronavirus pandemic by applying his theater skills and interests to a TikTok, where his videos have gained millions of views and hundreds of thousands of followers. Brittin maintains a humble and studious attitude about this social media virality. And he agreed to answer questions about what he’s learning on TikTok that other actors, creatives and journalists might appreciate.

Q - How did your life in theater change when Covid emerged last March, April and May?

A - Theater stopped--everything stopped. I love theater and acting and suddenly I was not able to participate in any of it for the foreseeable future. Other than a couple of Zoom improv classes I had no creative outlet. I was not in any shows at the time, but I was a member of a performing choir that stopped due to COVID. Like everyone else, I felt a bit lost. My dream has always been to have a career in theater, and though I've done a couple of professional shows, I still have not hit my stride with performing. I don't have an agent and am not equity, so like most other actors in the city I'd been in the trenches trying to get booked. I was already fighting discouragement with the rejections and failure of "making it" as an actor when COVID hit, so when it became clear that my dream was in limbo and it was uncertain when theaters would re-open, I realized I needed to shift my priorities.

Q - How did you decide to get involved with TikTok and why?

A - Prior to COVID, I had been growing increasingly interested in social media and the format of entertainment being delivered via the internet. The Actor's magazine "Backstage" and other actor publications have really been emphasizing the importance of having a presence on social media (here's a 2020 article from them on why every actor needs to be on social media). I made a TikTok account in December of 2019 because of the popularity the app was gaining and I posted a few videos to the app, but I was uncommitted prior to the pandemic. Once the theaters closed and I could not perform anything in person, I decided to spend all the found time I had in making videos for the internet and trying to build an audience. I decided to specifically start putting all my efforts into creating TikTok content because I knew that it was the fastest growing social platform in 2019-2020, it had the highest demographic of teen users at the time, and because I regretted missing the wave with Vine (a popular video app that died in 2016). I thought that if I could get good at keeping an audience engaged through short videos, it would help my storytelling skills and increase my understanding of what it takes to build an audience. Since I was trapped at home in quarantine anyway, I decided it would be a good way to have some sort of creative outlet while growing my understanding of how to keep people entertained.

Q - Tell us about how your audience grew there and what you learned from that audience?

A - It took a solid couple months of uploading consistently videos that barely broke 100 views before one took off and gained over a couple thousand views. From there it was probably another month and a half of posting before one of my videos broke the 100k views mark. As I continued to consistently post throughout the year, that window between the successful videos would grow shorter. Eventually, after about 6 months of posting with a few viral videos, I had gained a following of 40k. Up to this point, I had a general idea of the kind of audience I attracted (a younger demographic), so I started focusing my content more on what I thought they might find engaging. Taking the time to really work through that helped my growth and I was able to produce successful videos on a more consistent basis, ending the year with 590K followers. Consistency was the most important part of the growth. I posted videos daily for a few months, then pulled back to every other day once I started feeling burnt out.

I learned quite a lot from the audience, but I would say the two most important things would be: never-ending improvement, and consistency are key. There is always something I could improve in my videos whether it be lighting, sound, pacing, dialogue, etc. Also being consistent with the upload schedule and the kind of videos I posted were the most important factors of growth.

Q - Tell us about the process of figuring out what kinds of posts do well and play to your strengths? E.g. Do you do dances? Songs? Skateboard tricks? Monologues?

A - I quickly realized that I was (regrettably) not a part of the class of creators who could simply hit record, strike a couple poses, look attractive, and get millions of views. Nor was I a dancer. So, I took stock of what I was good at and how I might incorporate that into my videos. Being from a theater background, I was very familiar with conflict and motivation (i.e. what is the conflict of a story and what is motivating the characters to act), so I decided to try and incorporate that into my videos. I tried a basic skit where I played two characters fighting over something they both wanted (a yellow balloon), and I tried to keep the conflict at the center of the video. Conflict with high stakes engages an audience, and that was my first video to hit 1 million views. From there, I did a ton of research on how to make entertaining videos, what keeps people engaged, attended workshops, listened to podcasts--everything. I ruled out trying to do monologues or straight theater scenes as I saw other actors doing that on the app but found the videos to be pretty cringy. Not that my videos aren't cringy, but I had more fun going the direction I did.

Q - How might other young artists and actors think about personal branding and craft on platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram?

A - I am still trying to figure this out myself. I definitely think it's important to be on social media as an actor, since so much of the world relies on it. But I also see so many actors on social media only posting "actor" content, which I find really one-dimensional. As performers, our bodies are our instruments and our faces are our brand. As such, I think it's easy for us to be so self-focused that we get tripped up by what people actually enjoy or are entertained by. We post as a way to put ourselves out there, to show we're working on theater stuff, to say how happy and grateful we are to be involved in such-and-such production or Zoom play. But that does not attract an audience. That's "selfish content". The best thing you can do is offer value to people, whether that be information, entertainment or inspiration. Offering content that is valuable to people is what attracts them to follow you. I believe this is true across all social platforms.

Brittin Ward and his brother Titus

Q - What kind of discipline or time commitment have you developed and what might other people develop?

A - Each video I posted in the latter half of the year took around 3-4 hours to shoot, edit, and post, so it definitely required a good amount of discipline. That also does not include the time it would take to come up with a video idea and plan out the video. It sounds silly since it was only for TikTok, but I would literally storyboard my videos and break them down into increments of 5-10 seconds and plan what action I wanted to happen at which segment of the video. I basically spent all my time outside of my day job working on my videos.

Q - Why is it important for artists to build self-marketing skills?

A - Honestly, being cut off from theater was really great for me as it forced me to take stock of the direction my career was going and think creatively about how to entertain people. As an actor, I am my own business so it is solely up to me whether I succeed or fail. If I don't have the drive to keep picking myself back up after each failure and continuing to pursue my dream, it will not happen. Self-marketing is crucial for actors and entertainers, but I would emphasize the importance of not just self-promoting. No one likes that. But everyone appreciates a chuckle at a funny video, or feeling inspired to try something new because of a video they watched. I don't know who said this originally, but my dad always told me "people won't remember what you said or did, but they will remember how you made them feel.”

Q - When the pandemic is officially over (what a wonderful thought!) do you expect to remain as involved on TikTok? Or do you expect to channel your creative energies elsewhere?

A - I've really enjoyed building an audience on TikTok, and I will continue to post there, but I would also like to turn my attention to other platforms. With videos restricted to being 60 seconds long, I have a hard time creating content that connects with people on a deeper level. I don't think it's possible for a TikTok to have the same impact on a person as a great podcast or youtube video. You just can't go deep (whether it be comedy, inspiration, etc.) in 60 seconds. When the Pandemic lifts I will go back to auditioning and trying to book stage roles. However, I will continue to devote plenty of my time to making videos. I feel like I am only just now beginning to understand how all this social media stuff works, so I'd like to see what I can accomplish in another year.

- Edited by Paul Glader, executive director of MPJI.

MPJI is based at The King’s College in New York City. MPJI provides education, training and professional development projects for journalists at the high school, undergraduate and professional levels. It is named after the late John McCandlish Phillips, a legendary reporter at The New York Times.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @JMPjournalism and LinkedIn at McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute.

How NYCJ Alumna Maria Monteros Landed Prestigious Internships and a Wall Street Journal Page One Story

By Taylor Washington

Four years ago, Maria Monteros was sure she was going to become a doctor. 

Although she always enjoyed writing, the now 21-year-old said pursuing a degree in journalism was not a feasible goal in her native Philippines. 

It wasn’t until her mother got a job offer in the United States that Monteros had the opportunity to study something she was actually passionate about. 

“You have way more opportunities here, and a lot of things are possible, like you can make your own profession possible here. And so, that really inspired me to do what I want in the end,” Monteros said. 

After relocating to Nashville, Tenn., Monteros transferred to Trevecca Nazarene University where she majored in multimedia journalism and minored in marketing because she also wanted to learn about business. 

While she was initially wary about this abrupt change in career path, Monteros said she decided to jump right in. She began writing for Trevecca’s student newspaper, the TrevEchoes, and eventually became an editor. Through Trevecca, Monteros also ended up having the opportunity to write for national publications through Trevecca’s partnership with the NYC Semester in Journalism (NYCJ) program at The King’s College in NYC. 

“I just went in blind, but it ended up being probably the best decision. Is it divine intervention? Maybe, because I mean, if it wasn't for Trevecca then I wouldn't have gone to that New York City program and I wouldn't have gotten the internship at Newsweek,” Monteros said.

Maria Monteros (second from left in front row) with other students in the Spring 2019 class of the NYC Semester in Journalism (NYCJ).

The New York City Semester in Journalism program at The King’s College granted Monteros a semester in the Big Apple where she interned at Newsweek and covered entertainment. She also completed a business journalism course with Prof. Paul Glader at The King’s College that resulted in her final story about a sub-culture of instagram snack food junkies getting published on page one of The Wall Street Journal. 

“It was the first time I’ve seen a story idea from a student that was so original and well-reported that I could pitch it to editors at the WSJ. It’s extremely rare for the WSJ to accept free-lance page one features at all. And it’s more rare to publish a free-lance page one story from a college student. It may be the first time that’s happened,” said Prof. Glader, who is co-director of the NYCJ program at King’s. “It’s a testament to Maria’s creative ideas and rigorous reporting ability.” 

Maria Monteros (second from left) listening to TKC business professor Dr. Dami Kabiawu guest lecture about financial analysis in Prof. Paul Glader’s business reporting class.

That summer following NYCJ in 2019, Monteros interned at Dow Jones MarketWatch where she covered personal finance. This experience cemented Monteros’ passion for business news and she knew she wanted to cover this beat after graduation.

“One thing that I really like about business journalism is it's such an innovative field to work in. There's so many unique beats, like I know someone who covers the space beat, you know, and I think that's crazy,” she said. “I've always wanted to write stories about niche topics and go into depth in it. I want to be an expert in what I'm writing about.”

Her senior year, Monteros was promoted to editor-in-chief of the TrevEchoes where she used her knowledge and interest in business to apply financial angles to campus news. 

“Maria has probably the strongest work ethic of any student I've ever worked with. She is a self-starter, she always meets deadline and she's motivated and ambitious. She takes great pride in her work and doesn't stop until it meets her high standards,” JoEllen Weedman, the newspaper’s faculty advisor and Monteros’ former professor, said.

In addition to improving her reporting skills, Monteros said the job taught her how to collaborate with others and the importance of being a humble leader. When the coronavirus emerged in the U.S. and Trevecca suspended face-to-face instruction, Monteros was still busy reporting remotely. She said this challenging situation taught her how to be tenacious. 

This past year, Monteros was selected to The Dow Jones News Fund business internship program with American City Business Journals. She reported on minority-owned businesses for The Nashville Business Journal in the summer of 2020.

“I’ve always known that this program is very prestigious. And I thought if I want to make it in journalism then this is the program to apply to,” she said. 

NYCJ alumna Maria Monteros (in white striped shirt) listening to The Washington Post business editor Dave Cho speak to Prof. Paul Glader’s business reporting class at The King’s College in NYC.

Having called Nashville home for four years, the recent graduate said she was excited to cover local businesses there. While she said her mission to find the truth motivates her reporting, there is another motivation that influences her strong work ethic. This fall, she will be interning at Bloomberg News.

“I'm a first-generation immigrant,” she said. “And so, just seeing my mom putting her best and trying to give me an education makes me want to work harder.”

- Edits and Updates made by MPJI staff.

Students interested in NYC Semester Program at The King’s College can apply here.

Arne Fjeldstad Scholarship Brings International Journalism Students To The King’s College in NYC

Carol Wambui is the fourth Arne Fjeldstad Scholar, who received a scholarship to be part of the NYC Semester in Journalism (NYCJ) at The King’s College in NYC. She is studying Journalism at the Multimedia University of Kenya. During her time at King’s in the NYCJ program, she is interning at ReligionUnplugged, an award-winning non-profit news outlet that covers religion.

After a Norwegian journalist and minister named Arne Fjeldstad died of a blood clot in his lung in 2014, MPJI director Paul Glader had the privilege to meet Hilde Margrethe Sæbø Fjeldstad in Kristiansand, Norway and other family members of Arne in 2015. 

Glader and Hilde spoke and prayed about how they might honor her late husband, Arne, his focus on reporting about religion in public life and his legacy of caring for journalists around the world. Arne was a Lutheran minister and a night editor at the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. Arne helped develop The Media Project, an international network of working journalists who care about good journalism, particularly religion reporting. Arne was beloved by many people in Africa, India, Latin America and other corners of the globe. 

As Hilde and her daughter, Silje Marie, visited New York City in 2015, Hilde said she believed in what the McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute was doing to teach and promote quality journalism through its programs at The King’s College in NYC and as the home of The Media Project, of which Professor Paul Glader now serves as executive director. She said she would love to see a scholarship that honored Arne and allowed students from the global south to participate in the NYC Semester in Journalism (NYCJ) program. 

Hilde Fjeldstad (right) with her mother and Prof. Paul Glader (left), executive director of The Media Project and the McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute, during a visit in Kristiansand, Norway, in 2015

Glader and team began raising money to make it possible for a student from Uganda, Gertrude Too-Rom, to attend the program. Then, in 2016, Howard and Roberta Ahmanson (Roberta being the chairwoman of The Media Project) agreed to fund an annual scholarship ($20,000 in value) for at least one international journalism student from the global south to attend the NYCJ program. Since then, the NYCJ program has hosted two annual Fjeldstad Scholars from Uganda, one from Kenya and one from the Republic of Georgia. 

The scholarship funds either two $10,000 scholarships to help students attend NYCJ or one $20,000 scholarship. The scholarship(s) covers the bulk of tuition and housing for students (leaving costs for transport to NY, food and a small amount for tuition). In some rare instances, one student may be selected for the scholarship each year and fully funded. The students will be placed in a newsroom internship in NYC for 20 hours per week (receiving 6 academic credits). Most often, the Fjeldstad Scholar will serve as an intern at ReligionUnplugged.com, the award-winning, non-profit news outlet connected to TheMediaProject.org and an important outlet for TMP members to report on religion in public life around the world. The Fjeldstad scholars also take three classes at The King’s College with other students in the NYC Semester in Journalism program, who come from 40 partner schools around the US and world.

Silje Marie Fjeldstad (left) and Hilde Fjeldstad (right) the daughter and wife of the late Arne Fjeldstad, during a visit to New York City in 2015.

Colleges and universities that would like to become a partner to the NYCJ program so their students can compete for the Arne Fjeldstad scholarship can write to Paul Glader at Pglader@tkc.edu. And students who would like to apply for the scholarship can do so at https://www.tkc.edu/nycs and should be in touch with Eleni Glader at eglader@tkc.edu about their application.

We spoke with our current Arne Fjeldstad Scholar, Carol Wambui, who is from Nairobi, Kenya, and is interning at ReligionUnplugged.com as part of her internship. 

What first sparked your interest in journalism? What led you to consider pursuing it in college?

From a young age, I have always been fascinated by the media, from news anchoring to news reporting. I did not know much about journalism then but I was sure it was what I wanted to do, even if it was not full-time. Just before graduating from high school, we wrote down our courses of interest and the colleges where they were offered. I wrote out my choices, and journalism was at the very top. When I received my high school grades, and was accepted to enroll in a journalism program at college, it was almost a confirmation of my destiny. Back in high school, I had done some basic newswriting and reporting after major school functions, but that was all I knew about journalism. An opportunity to learn more excited me.

How did you hear about NYCJ and the Arne Fjeldstad scholarship? What made you decide to apply?

Stella Ogigo, a former editor at the Kenya Broadcast Corporation in Kenya, who has also worked with Professor Glader in the past, mentioned the program to me and advised that I apply. I knew that an opportunity to study journalism in the U.S.—a place of diversity, advancement and exposure—was exactly what I needed for my career. I believed God had blessed me with a rare opportunity, so I took it. I applied and I am so grateful that I was accepted.

“Becoming one of the people who is shining a light on religion across the globe is a beautiful thing and I cannot wait to learn more and grow in this.”

- Carol Wambui, Arne Fjeldstad Scholar

What do you hope to gain from your time in New York?

During my time in New York, I want to learn everything that was not taught in my college classes—from the field work experiences to my writing skills. I want to learn and enhance my reporting skills, whether by live-recording or writing as both will help me in my investigative journalism. I believe that studying in one of the biggest cities in the world will not only enhance my career, but also my view and perception of the world, of successful journalism and of life in general.

How will you bring the skills you have learned here back to Nairobi?

My time at The King’s College is giving me a true journalistic eye that I will bring back to Nairobi. I am learning to work with diligence and excellence at my internship with Religion Unplugged. I believe I will practice and even show others how to make journalism in Kenya better than before.

You are interning at ReligionUnplugged (a publication of The Media Project, which Arne led). What are you learning about the importance of religion coverage in the news?

Honestly, I had never thought about religion coverage before starting this internship. The only religion news coverage I ever knew of were the videos I made with my church. When I joined Religion Unplugged, it was like my eyes were opened to religion reporting. I am sure there are other people out there like myself, who probably have not learned the importance of religion coverage. Becoming one of the people who is shining a light on religion across the globe is a beautiful thing and I cannot wait to learn more and grow in this. I feel like a lot of people need to know what is going on in their particular religions as well as in other religions and that is exactly what Religion Unplugged is doing for the world. I am happy to be part of it.

What are some of your future journalistic goals?

I am interested in moving into investigative journalism, and would like to take journalism into a whole other level of finding and fighting crimes. This is not a well developed field in Kenya, and I hope to be among the few who can grow it and make it something huge. I hope to have a media network at some point in my career where I can host different types of media coverage like sports, investigations and religion, and mediums like print, radio and broadcast. I would want to help highlight any sort of journalist worldwide starting from my home country. I hope to help not only future journalists, but also people with other career interests, by offering scholarships and sponsorships to advance in their education. These are some of my many future goals.

What has surprised you about New York City? 

New York City is nothing like I imagined, read or watched in the movies. I guess seeing things with your own eyes makes all the difference. I think it is one thing to hear or even read about something, and it’s another to actually experience something. I came in winter, and the weather is like nothing I have ever experienced before in my life. With extremes of up to -3 degrees Celsius, I definitely wasn’t ready for the cold. 

How is Nairobi different from New York and what has been the biggest challenge to living here?

New York boasts a diversity of cultures and religions that makes it unlike Nairobi or any other town in Kenya. Nairobi is my city, my town—I literally know almost every corner of the city. I know how to get around Nairobi, which is not the case in New York. Still, I am learning little by little how to get around. I am naturally adventurous and curious, which has made aligning with how things work around here much easier. I am always ready to learn or experience something new. I am happy in New York, even with its many differences.

Carol Wambui, on the roof of her apartment building overlooking Brooklyn, NY.

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Meet our previous Arne Fjeldstad Scholars:

Gertrude Too-room, Spring '17

Uganda Christian University

Keta Bagashvili, Spring '18

Caucasus University, Georgia

Ruth Rose Akongo, Fall '18

Uganda Christian University

The McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute Welcomes the NYCJ class of Fall 2018!

NEW YORK – The Seventh class of the NYC Semester in Journalism (NYCJ) arrived in August from all over the United States and Uganda. The class of 14 students represent 11 different universities.

They will participate in the unique semester-long, off-campus study program operated by the McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute at The King’s College in NYC. The students live in student housing at King’s, where they take three classes, including capstone courses with Prof. Terry Mattingly, a syndicated religion columnist, and Prof. Paul Glader, a former staff writer at The Wall Street Journal. Under the guidance of Prof. Clemente Lisi (former deputy head of news at the New York Daily News), they also work 20 hours per week in a newsroom in NYC, earning six academic credits under and pursuing at least one byline per week for their portfolios.

Here is a roster of the Fall 2018 class of NYCJ

Brianna Kudisch is a journalism major from Taylor Univeristy in Upland, Ind.. She will be interning at The Brooklyn Paper, a weekly broadsheet that covers news related exclusively to the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

Brooke Sargent is a Broadcast Journalism major from Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, Calif. She will be interning at Newsweek, on the video desk.

Cassidy Klein is a journalism and philosophy double major from Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, Calif. She will be interning at The Queens Ledger, a weekly community newspaper for Queens, NY.

Emma Miller is an English major from Messiah College in Grantham, PA. She will be interning at The Queens Courier, a local paper in Queens, NY.

Goldene Brown is a Multimedia Journalism major from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill. She will be interning at the New York Daily News.

Jenna Miller is a Journalism major from Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, Calif. She will be interning at The Story Exchange, a media organization telling stories of women entrepreneurs.

Josh Towner is a journalism major from Bethel University in Minneapolis Minn. He will be interning at The Queens Courier, a community paper in Queens, NY.

Julianna Hernandez is a Journalism and Integrated Media major at Biola University from La Mirada in Calif. She will be interning at the New York Daily News.

Kassidy Vavra is a Journalism, Culture and Society major from The King’s College. She will be interning at the New York Daily News.

Kennedy Weber is a Multimedia Journalism and Political Science major from Milligan College in Tenn.. She will be interning at Providence Magazine, a journal of Christianity and American foreign policy.

Marlee Drake is a Journalism major from Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, Calif. She will be interning at Newsweek, on the video desk.

Nathan Foster is a Dual major in Sports Journalism and Public Relations from Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, Calif. He will be interning at Newsweek.

Princess Jones is a Multimedia Journalism major from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville Tenn.. She will be interning at the New York Amsterdam News, the oldest black newspaper in the country.

Ruth Rose Akongo is a journalism and media major from Uganda Christian University in Mukono, Uganda. She will be interning at Providence Magazine, a journal of Christianity and American foreign policy.