The SOJOWB Guatemala International Program is our flagship month-long journalism experience: four weeks of intensive training, field reporting, professional development and cultural immersion at Lake Atitlán.
This is so much more than a journalism course.
For one month, Guatemala becomes your classroom, your newsroom and your home. You’ll learn from working journalists and local experts, report alongside a small international cohort, build relationships within the communities you’re reporting with, and take an original story from its earliest idea through field reporting, writing, editing and pitching for publication.
The month-long program gives you the freedom to explore before deciding what the story is. Rather than arriving with a tightly defined reporting plan, you’ll have time to meet people, discover stories organically, follow leads, change direction, return to sources and investigate questions you didn’t know to ask when you arrived.
Alongside your reporting, the month is designed to help you become a stronger, more confident and more employable journalist.
You will:
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Train in solutions journalism, interviewing, pitching, international reporting, ethics, sourcing, story development and working across cultures
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Report extensively in the field, spending meaningful time with communities, organizations, experts and changemakers rather than relying on a handful of scheduled interviews
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Develop an original, deeply reported story for your portfolio, with one-on-one editorial mentorship throughout the entire process
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Learn from working journalists and guest experts through workshops, discussions and practical sessions
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Build your professional toolkit, from finding stories and approaching sources to working with editors and pitching international publications
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Workshop, edit and fact-check your reporting with the kind of sustained editorial support that is difficult to replicate in a classroom
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Build an international network of fellow journalists, mentors, community organizations and media professionals
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Experience Guatemala beyond the 'single story', with time for cultural exchange, exploration and a deeper understanding of the place in which you are reporting
Why a month?
Because some of the most important parts of journalism happen before you open your notebook.
Four weeks gives you the freedom to be curious. To have conversations that aren't interviews. To hear about something unexpectedly and follow it. To discover that the story you thought you were going to write isn't actually the story at all.
It gives you time to build trust with sources rather than rushing relationships because your flight leaves in three days.
It gives you time to return to someone after an interview, chase missing evidence, speak to another expert, interrogate what you've been told and understand the limitations of the solution you're investigating. And importantly, it gives you the opportunity to live somewhere rather than simply report from it.
Our participants become part of a small international cohort living and working together at Lake Atitlán. There is space for journalism, but also for friendships, shared meals, conversations, exploring Guatemala and experiencing a place that cannot be understood from behind a laptop or through a week of scheduled interviews.
The result isn't simply a finished story.
You leave with field reporting experience, intensive training, professional editorial mentorship, a substantial portfolio piece, pitching experience, international connections and a month of experience working as a journalist in another country.
For students and early-career journalists considering international reporting, freelancing, documentary work, communications or a career in media, it is an opportunity to find out what doing this work actually feels like.
And you'll do it with a maximum of eight international participants, meaning this isn't a lecture hall or a tour group. It's a small working newsroom where your ideas, your reporting and your development receive individual attention.
Please fill out this form thoughtfully, and we'll be in touch to arrange an online interview at our earliest convenience.
WHAT'S INCLUDED?
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Accommodation in a semi-private homestay or boutique hostel (breakfast included)
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Pre- and post-arrival orientation and onsite coordinator
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Welcome day consisting of a local neighborhood walking tour, team-building excursion and welcome dinner
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Educational briefings and workshops on the theory and practice of Solutions Journalism, including guest lectures from professional journalists and thought leaders
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Weekly networking events with journalists, community leaders and/or changemakers to facilitate and accelerate community and industry immersion
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Personal development workshops
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Logistical support & access to translators for field trips (as required)
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Access to a ‘base camp’ to learn and work (including free coffee, tea, water and Wi-Fi)
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Mentored collaborative production of one (1) solutions story, peer review sessions and guidance on how to pitch the story to editors
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A special end of program presentation/community event
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Shared airport transfers
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Certificate of completion
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Post program, a SOJWB e-magazine featuring participants profiles and a compilation of solutions stories produced during the program
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Fundraising advice
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Plus more value adds still in the works!
COST: USD $3,000
LEARN
how to produce
high-impact solutions stories
CONNECT
with changemakers responding to problems in their community
WRITE
a solutions story in collaboration with a local journalism student
PITCH
your completed story
to a news outlet
(with a little help from us!*)