Want to grow as a journalist while absorbing a universe of environmental knowledge?

The Grist Fellowship Program is a paid opportunity to hone your skills at a national news outlet and deepen your understanding of environmental issues.

ELIGIBILITY:

The mission of the Grist fellowship program is to help underrepresented, early-career climate journalists gain a stronger foothold in our industry. Our definition of “early-career” includes but is not limited to: journalists who are relatively new to the environmental/climate beat, freelancers who have not had full-time newsroom experience, recent journalism school graduates, and scientists without traditional journalism training but with strong writing clips and content knowledge. 

The experience is designed to give early-career journalists with a demonstrated interest in environmental issues the experience to succeed in climate and environmental media.

Grist aims to help train the next generation of environmental journalists and storytellers. The Grist Fellowship Program is designed to provide newsroom experience for early-career journalists who have a demonstrated interest in environmental and climate journalism and media. 

Regardless of what brings you to their Fellowship Program, if a Grist fellowship could benefit your environmental journalism career, they’d love to hear from you. They especially encourage applicants from underrepresented backgrounds to apply and encourage you to be in touch with us if you have questions. (fellowships@grist.org) 

Applicants must submit the following application materials.  Please note that applications without both a resume and cover letter will not be considered.  

 Resume

Cover letter. We are looking for a succinct, thoughtful cover letter that explains what you are passionate about when it comes to climate news (science, politics, or policy) coverage, gives examples of story ideas you might want to pursue, and reasons you believe you are a good fit for this position.

Links to two news writing samples. These can appear within or appended to the end of your cover letter. Writing samples can be newspaper or magazine clips, blog posts, or unpublished pieces. We will gladly accept links to multimedia samples (video, illustration, infographic, podcast, etc.) but cannot review original files. If you have a GitHub account you’d like to show us, please provide a link to your profile. 

Finalist candidates who are asked to submit a writing test will be compensated.

Cover letters must be uploaded as a separate attachment via Greenhouse. Please include “Climate News Fellow” in the document title. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please submit applications by 11:59 PT on January 21, 2025. 

If you have questions, please email fellowships@grist.org. No phone calls, please.

Applications for our 2025-2026 fellowships are now open until January 21 2025.  We are accepting applicants are in the following areas:

Climate News

Climate Solutions

Indigenous Affairs

Details about each fellowship, the application process and compensation for each position are available here. The fellowship will run from May 2025 to April 2026.

BENEFIT:

The annual base pay for this position is $58,750. 

Medical, dental, and vision premiums paid 100% for Employee and 85% for Dependent premiums

Employer-paid Basic Life, ADD, Travel Assistance, STD/LTD, EAPs

Voluntary Insurance include Health, Dependent, and Transit FSA, Life/ADD, Critical Illness and Accident Insurance

Traditional and Roth 401k with matching (vested immediately)

New Employee Remote Office Set-up reimbursement

Monthly WiFi Stipend

Alternative Transportation Reimbursement

Fifteen paid holidays per year (which includes office closure between Dec 25 and Jan 1) plus five floating holidays and 3 summer days

Generous paid leave including medical and family leave, parental leave, abortion leave, sabbatical leave, and many other paid and unpaid leave programs

Annual in-person all-staff retreat (subject to pandemic conditions)

Flexible work options