Columbia Journalism School to offer educational loan repayment assistance for recent graduates with inaugural program

The program is the first of its kind for graduate journalism schools. With its inception, Columbia continues to stake its claim as a steadfast supporter of rigorous, representative, and ethical journalism — and of its highly skilled graduates who want to make a difference in the industry.

Columbia Journalism School (CJS) will launch a Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) with the goal of providing support to recent graduates who take positions in nonprofit news media organizations — a market that is rapidly growing in the United States. The announcement was made today by Jelani Cobb, Dean and Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism, at the School’s graduation ceremony.

“We hope that by relieving students of some financial pressure, we can offer a bit of breathing room,” said Dean Cobb. “Our aim is to encourage students to explore new career paths that may not otherwise have been possible for them. Our graduates have skills in demand, and we want them to be shared with organizations making a difference."

CJS recognizes that work in the local and nonprofit sector, while deeply important, is often lower paid than positions in standard news media companies. LRAP is designed to help alleviate this financial burden, often associated with repaying educational loans, while drawing top talent to local communities and to a vibrant new nonprofit sector that is helping to address the under-reporting caused by shrunken editorial budgets and shuttered local newspapers.

Law schools have long been at the forefront of this effort, with many providing financial aid to their graduates working in a nonprofit newsroom or other lower-paying legal fields. With this inaugural pilot program, CJS intends to reinvent the business model for its industry by borrowing from the example set by law and medical schools.

Graduates working full-time in the public interest sector and who are within three years of their CJS graduation date are eligible to apply. Those qualified may receive up to $50,000 over five years of participation. To learn more about eligibility, visit the LRAP FAQ.