Pulitzer Center Fellowship
The 2026 Pulitzer Center Grant application is now open. The deadline has been extended to February 8.
Each spring, one Davidson student is selected to receive a grant in order to complete an independent multimedia international reporting project. The project should focus on a systemic issue of global importance that is under-reported or unreported in U.S. mainstream media.
Fellowship Experience
You will receive exclusive training, support and mentorship from staff at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. While working on your project in the field, a member of the Pulitzer Center staff will serve as your editor - establishing deadlines and assisting you in crafting publishable pieces. As a grant recipient, you will also choose a past Pulitzer Center journalist to serve as a professional mentor (subject to availability) who will offer practical advice and non-editorial support.
Working closely with Pulitzer Center staff and a Pulitzer Center journalist mentor, you will build on your project proposal and decide on a plan of deliverables that will include some combination of maintaining a blog, taking photographs, recording audio, shooting video, writing articles for the Pulitzer Center website, and potentially seeking other outlets for their work.
Applying for the Grant
For this grant, each student is required to complete the following steps:
- Consult with Dean Rusk office to discuss your project proposal.
- Adhere to the Pulitzer Center's Ethics and Standards Policy throughout the reporting project.
- Meet with the Pulitzer Center journalist visiting Davidson's campus the semester after you receive your grant.
- Complete the application.
- List 3 references (at least one faculty member).
- Include 2-3 recent samples of your work, written and/or multimedia.
- Include your current resume.
- Turn all your deliverables into the Pulitzer Center. These will also be shared with the Dean Rusk Program.
Previous experience in photography or filming is not a prerequisite for applying for this grant.
Writing Your Proposal
A strong proposal includes:
- What issue do you want to address.
- Whose stories do you want to tell.
- Where will you travel to cover the issue.
- Which media do you think will tell the story best.
- Who or what kinds of people do you plan to talk to and how will you make the material accessible to lay audiences.
- How will the project match the Pulitzer Center's goal of focusing on under reported systemic issues of global importance.
- What do you hope to get from the project and why does the project interest you.
Get to know Davidson's 2023 Pulitzer Reporting Fellow, Katherine Coetzer '24.