CAJ Journalism Scholarship

As developers of PDF converter, creator and editor solutions, we know what an important role data has to play in our everyday lives and especially in the news. Now more than ever, factual data analysis is crucial to the integrity of investigative reporting, and learning to do so accurately is essential. That’s why we’re getting involved right where it matters most when it comes to the future of the journalism industry — the students.

Our aim for this scholarship is to support and encourage journalism students by helping them with the costs of their education, which can often be a hindrance to their career. Not only that, but we intend for this scholarship to serve as a way to help prepare students for a career path as a journalist by getting them to think about the industry and its ever-increasing emphasis on data.

That said, this scholarship will go to one Canadian student who shows an interest and understanding of data journalism tools and techniques before they even enter the newsroom professionally. We want to get Canadian and journalism students, like you, to really think about the data you use in your stories.

To ensure this scholarship falls in line with professional and journalistic guidelines, we’ve partnered with the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ). The CAJ is a notable journalism organization that provides Canadian journalists with support, mentorship, community, and resources across the country.

Eligibility

The Investintech - CAJ Data Journalism Scholarship is open to all students with proven journalism skills and an interest in data journalism. Eligible students must meet the following requirements:

• Pursuing a course of studies or program leading to a diploma, undergraduate or graduate degree.
• Show evidence of their journalism skills and interest, such as having a published news story, or be working for a college publication, etc.
• Currently accepted to or enrolled in a college or university in Canada.

Submission and Application Details

Submitted work may be a published item, class assignment or even an item on a personal blog.

• Work must have been produced within one calendar year of the scholarship closing date.
• A single submission of individual work is preferred. If the submitted item is produced as part of a team of two or more, the applicant must submit a detailed explanation about their contribution and their own proof of work.
• Previous winners are not eligible to apply.

The submission must include:

• An example of a work of journalism that shows the application of data skills (e.g. use of spreadsheets, web scraping, use of mapping tool). The submissions must include at least one data visualization (e.g. a map or a chart) produced by the student.
• An explanation of what you did and how you did it, including the resources you used and how the data was compiled. For submissions that were part of a group project, applicants must explain their role, the skills they used in fulfilling that role, and the specific parts of the story, or stories, that their contribution influenced.