When a young journalist accepts their placement in the Alfred Friendly Press Partners Fellowship, they are committing to spending half their year training to improve their journalism skills.

During this six-months reporters train at the Missouri School of Journalism for three weeks – learning from professional practice faculty with broad experience. They get hands-on, in-depth training in data-strengthened investigative reporting and multimedia production skills.

Then they continue their training by working on staffs of leading U.S. newsrooms such as The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the Pulitzer Center, and more. It is here that Fellows can practice journalism that is ethical, innovative and influential before returning home.

With the graduation of nearly 350 reporters, editors and broadcasters from 80+ countries since 1984, the scope of journalism uplifted by Alfred Friendly Press Partners spreads across the globe. Each year, the fellowship program trains early-career journalists from countries with underdeveloped media (some of the most dangerous places to be a journalist) to practice professional, ethical, and innovative journalism.

And each year, we are incredibly proud of the work our alumni have accomplished. They have started organizations to promote fact based reporting, they have held leaders accountable for their actions, they have achieved awards for their investigative articles, they have inspired and mentored the next generation of journalists in their countries, and most of all, they have made an impact around the world.

What are you most proud of from 2022?

Taking the Fellowship program is a big commitment and come graduation day, the Fellows have more than earned their certification. However, this is often not the only big accomplishment for our past fellows, so as 2022 nears its end, we asked our Fellows, what they are most proud of from the past year, here’s what they said –

Anastasia Veeleva

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Parth Nikil: This was a good year for me journalistically. The Alfred Friendly Fellowship is something I look back upon with pride. I managed to work and thrive in unfamiliar territory, which has certainly boosted my confidence.

Being nominated for the Martin Adler Prize in London, which goes to one independent journalist worldwide, was a proud moment too.

Saurav Rahman: To be a part of the Alfred Friendly Press Partners Fellowship is the proudest thing that happened in my life, and it was in 2022 when I participated in the program, so undoubtedly to join the fellowship and work with Kansas City PBS is the proudest thing for me in 2022. especially the very day, when my first report was published in the Kansas City PBS: Chasing the Dream: Survival Rates for New Businesses in Missouri and Kansas Lag National Average   

Anastasia Valeeva: I’m most proud of a data story I co-authored with my colleagues at The Marshall Project: Rifles, Tasers and Jails: How Cities and States Spent Billions of COVID-19 Relief. 

It’s really a result of months-long digging into a huge and detailed yet messy spendings dataset. I think the biggest added value of this story is that we managed to see the wood for the trees, identifying and describing common patterns of how ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act, the Covid19 stimulus package) turned into funding for police, prisons and courts. 

Nitu Ghale: 2022 was a very interesting year in my life. I got married and got to be an AFPP Fellow. I still can’t believe that I was selected soon after my marriage. Being a fellow and working in a U.S. newsroom was a great, pleasant experience.

Chencho Dema: “I’m proud that I was able to travel to five countries in 10 months and learn a lot about journalism through various training and fellowships. Thank you for guiding me during my stay in the US and thank you for such a golden opportunity to be part of the Alfred fellowship.

You can make an impact too.

We couldn’t offer Fellowships to young journalists, if it wasn’t from the donations and support of people like you. Currently, we have enough funding to support three journalists for the 2023 Fellowship program. We need your help to sponsor three more Fellows so we can run an impactful fellowship program and provide more opportunities to journalists from media hungry countries.

It’s always been our mission to lift up journalism around the world, by training young journalists with the tools and skills to share the stories of their communities, people, and culture, to change the world with their words.

You can be part of making this impact, with your help, we can train more young journalists from countries where press freedom has the potential to grow.

Will you help us? Make a difference today.

A donation to support future fellowship opportunities is a gift you can be proud of.