The Unique Value of Journalism Fellowships
Q&A with HCN climate justice fellow Sarah Sax
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A journalism fellowship can be so many things. I’ve traveled cross-country for a weekend of reporting field trips that was called a fellowship. It wasn’t paid, but travel expenses were covered, and there weren’t any specific requirements to publish anything. On the other end of the spectrum are year-long programs in which fellows are paid a salary and essentially function as staff writers, but with a focus on education along the way.
What every journalism fellowship has in common is a chance to further develop your skills and learn from fellow writers and editors, which is something a lot of us are looking to do. Of course, some programs do a better job with education and support than others. It’s important to make sure a program aligns with what you’re looking to learn and accomplish before applying.
With the new year starting and lots of fellowship application deadlines coming up (you can find a big list of them here!) I thought it would be helpful to speak to someone who has recently participated in one.
Environmental journalist Sarah Sax graciously agreed to answer some questions about her role as climate justice fellow at High Country News—a position that is now open to new applicants. Sarah has an impressive resume and portfolio, so I was interested in hearing what’s different and most valuable about the fellowship experience—especially in the climate/environment vertical.
Writers, meet Sarah!
“I was really hungering to be back at an established organization and have the space and opportunity to learn from people whose work I admire.” — Sarah Sax
Britany: How did you find out about the climate justice fellowship at High Country News and why did it appeal to you?
Sarah: I’m pretty sure I found out about the High Country News fellowship through a tweet from the Society for Environmental Journalists which came up on one of the many listservs and newsletters I subscribe to. I’ve always been a huge fan of High Country News and some of my favorite journalists have come through the organization so I immediately jumped on the opportunity.
What were you up to prior to your fellowship at High Country News?
I had just finished up a four-month contract with VICE News Tonight working on a six-part series on climate change and the Anthropocene and was in the middle of resuming some print freelancing and kind of searching for what to do next. The fellowship was really ideal: I wanted to get more experience working for a magazine, I really wanted to write more about environmental and climate justice, and I wanted something that would ground me in a community for a while. My family is originally from Washington state, so it all kind of fit together.
Having already written for many well-known publications, what did you hope to accomplish or learn through a fellowship that you hadn't done through other work?
I don’t have a formal background in journalism – I kind of fell into it almost accidentally in 2017 when I landed a job with VICE News Tonight. A lot of what I learned about how to do journalism was thanks to some incredibly talented colleagues there. Since I left in 2019, I’ve been on my own and while I’ve had some great mentors, I was really hungering to be back at an established organization and have the space and opportunity to learn from people whose work I admire. High Country News pays a lot of attention to doing both excellent reporting and beautiful writing, and I went in hoping I would learn how to deepen my own writing and reporting and learn how to really tell the kind of stories I want to tell. HCN was also one of the few magazines to have a dedicated Indigenous affairs desk. As an environmental journalist, it was really important for me to learn how to report better on Indigenous issues, so I felt like working somewhere that excels in the area would be a good choice.
You previously worked for Vice News Tonight. What were the most notable differences between a full-time job and a position as a fellow?
I think the biggest difference is expectations. In a full-time position, you’re hired to do a specific job. It’s great when your interests line up with the work you are doing, and probably like 75% of the time in my case at VNT they did. But if they don’t, your priority is the job and that often means the things you are really passionate about and the stories you really want to do get pushed back. As a fellow, it’s expected that your passion and interested will drive your stories. Right now as a fellow, I am literally working 100% of the time on stories I’m extremely excited about. It’s bonkers. It might not be that way with all fellowships, but it’s certainly been my experience.
What advice would you offer someone who is applying for fellowships in 2022?
Don’t try to tailor your application to what you think the organization wants. Be frank and honest about what kinds of stories you want to do and what you want to achieve. Ultimately, a fellowship is a kind of investment in yourself and you should only invest in an organization that is really willing to invest in you as well.
At this point you have a lot of experience in covering environmental issues and climate change. What do you find most appealing and what do you find most challenging about this vertical?
Unfortunately, the answer to both is the same: the stories keep getting bigger, more interwoven into everyday life, and there’s more and more at stake. Environmental reporting and climate reporting in particular is at an inflection point - sub beats are emerging where there were none five years ago. Like you can just be a wildfire beat reporter now, or just report on unequal climate disaster recovery. That’s appealing because it’s all fresh territory. Last time we saw these kind of massive changes in the world, there weren’t newspapers, or humans for that matter! But it’s also challenging because at the same time you are balancing the enormity of this beat professionally, you are dealing with the enormity of this beat privately. I don’t know a single climate reporter who isn’t personally devastated once they realize the magnitude of the issue. Climate despair is real.
What is something you've learned at High Country News that will impact your work moving forward?
The story that everybody else is telling is often not the best story or the true story or even the most interesting story and the only way to get a different story is to talk to the people on the ground who are most affected (and often most knowledgeable) about the issue.
If you could go back in time to when you first became interested in environmental science and/or journalism, what career advice would you give that younger you?
Search out the people and outlets and stories or pieces you admire and really spend time studying them. What makes them good and noteworthy? How you include those elements in your own writing (or research)? How do they approach stories and reporting? You also don’t have to make all the mistakes yourself to learn them, but you do have to read about them. For science/enviro journalists, the Open Notebook and Facebook Binders have been invaluable for my own learning.
What piece of writing are you most proud of from this year and why?
The piece I published in the Guardian this year is a clear winner. It’s a story about how climate change is poised to make unclear property rights in the US a major source of racial wealth inequity, based around one small community in South Carolina where several residents have lost their homes and all the wealth tied up in them. I have literally been working on that story for years. It’s a difficult but hugely important topic that has not gotten nearly enough attention and it was also the first story I won a big grant for to do the reporting (thanks to the Economic Hardship Reporting Project!). Plus it was my first piece in the Guardian, whose work I’ve admired from before I even knew I wanted to be a journalist.
That’s all for today, friends. A big thank you to Sarah for sharing some insight on the fellowship experience.
I’ll be taking off the remainder of this week, so you won’t be receiving the usual Tuesday email tomorrow. But I’ll be back in your inbox next week! I hope you’re enjoying some downtime, too.
Stay inspired,
Britany