APSE

The Sports Journalism Institute is finalizing plans for its Class of 2010, and is accepting requests from those interested in hosting an intern next summer.

Please let us know by Dec. 1 if you are interested by emailing sandy_rosenbush@hotmail.com. (That’s an underscore between my first and last names.)

Students will again receive "boot camp" training at the Poynter Institute (May 28-June 6) and will be ready to report to newsrooms on Monday, June 7. SJI is also happy to work with editors who need interns to report early.

For those who have not shared the SJI experience, here’s all you need to know to secure a spot in this program, which has been helping our industry add qualified women and minorities to newsrooms since 1993:

–The program does not cost anything beyond the weekly salary of an intern for at least 6 weeks. You set the salary depending on what is your newsroom standard, and you set the length, as long as it’s at least 6 weeks. Interns are usually flexible on their start/end dates, and SJI just wants things to work for both the student and the paper.

–SJI absorbs the costs for the students’ 10-day boot camp, including transportation, room and board. This portion of the program does not cost the host newspaper or web site anything.

–SJI will work with you to ensure you get what you need. For example, if a car is a necessity for your intern, no problem. Or if you already have a student you are interested in and would like this person to be considered for our class training too, let us know.

SJI’s mission today is as it was when its first class convened in 1993–to increase the number of women and minorities in sports journalism. Never has the addition of new voices and new ways of looking at our profession been more important than today.

SJI has more than 150 graduates, more than 75 percent of whom remain in the business.

We continue to expand our horizons and change as needed with the times. We have added considerable online instruction through the help of the Poynter professionals, and this year we will welcome the two Scripps Howard interns as part of our boot camp (thanks to Phil Kaplan for making that happen).

Questions? Email me, or Leon Carter (lcarter@nydailynews.com) or Greg Lee (gleejr9472@aol.com).

And I’d be remiss if I did not add: SJI is a tax-deductable, 501 c 3 nonprofit. Contributions are gladly accepted from organizations (thanks as always to APSE, Chicago Tribune Foundation, New York Daily News, ESPN and others) or individuals. Email Sandy for more info on contributing.