 | |
"The Science Communication Program is widely regarded as one of the best science writing programs in the world; we believe that reputation is well deserved. . . [its] graduates are making strong contributions to the public understanding of science."
— from a 2006 external review of the program; reviewers were Sharon Dunwoody, Evjue-Bascom Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Colin Norman, News Editor of Science
the program’s uniqueness
Unlike conventional master's programs in communications or journalism, the
UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Program bestows a graduate certificate and:
 is just one year long (three academic quarters).
offers real-world internships throughout the year.
does not require a thesis.
is aimed at people who want to write for the
public about science rather than about general news.
focuses on practical training with working journalists and editors as instructors.
emphasizes both news and feature writing, with an eye toward substantive reporting on research and policy.
stresses writing and editing in depth rather
than spreading students' attention among such topics as page layout, media
law, or the history of journalism.
In brief, Santa Cruz students practice science
writing as a fine art as well as a craft.
core curriculum
An intensive academic year of classes in science reporting, writing, and editing
Each student takes a
required three-course sequence (fall-winter-spring) in science journalism. Classes meet two days each week. Enrollment
in the individual courses is limited to the ten students accepted into the science
writing program, assuring detailed feedback from our instructors and a warm, collegial atmosphere for our editing workshops.
The sequence introduces students to the three basic forms of
science writing: news, features, and essays. In recent years, we have adjusted our courses to prepare our students to compete for jobs in a changing journalism industry. Here is our lineup for 2007-08:
Fall quarter: Reporting and writing science news; AP-style writing and editing; science newswriting for magazines. These courses introduce our former scientists to the foundations of journalism for newspapers and the front sections of magazines. Students cover events, propose and research story ideas, master the Associated Press style used at newspapers, and learn how to write in the style of different science magazines. Editing focuses on overall content, structure, tone, and technical level. Some articles for class also will appear online or in print in real publications.
Lecturers: Glennda Chui, Marc DesJardins, Rob Irion, Paul Rogers
Winter quarter: Science feature writing; investigative and policy reporting. Students deepen their journalistic training by conceiving of a novel full-length magazine feature, proposing it in the form of a query letter, and doing original research and interviews in the field. These features appear in our annual magazine, Science Notes. The investigative stories require students to go beyond the research news and explore issues of public policy, political influence, societal ethics, and funding. The writers file public records requests and track down nontraditional sources. Attending the AAAS meeting in February also is part of the winter curriculum.
Lecturers: Peter Aldhous, Rob Irion, Martha Mendoza
Spring quarter: Essay and profile writing, multimedia reporting and storytelling. Students explore creative and distinctive forms of science writing through personal and observational essays, as well as profiles of scientists or fascinating local people. Style comes to the fore here, as the students draw upon their training in the first two quarters to find their voices as writers. The web media classes, new in spring 2008, will send students out into the field or labs to record the sights and sounds of science in action, augmenting our online magazine with podcasts, slideshows, and video. Students will edit their own pieces in our computer lab.
Lecturers: Rob Irion, Mary Miller, Evelyn Strauss
All science-writing courses are open only to graduate students formally accepted into the program. Course descriptions and other information may be found in the General Catalog.
|
Part-time internships at local news organizations and other venues
Internships form the heart of our immersion in the professional worlds of journalism and science writing. Students work as staff writers for veteran editors throughout the academic year, putting their classroom training into immediate practice. They rapidly gain confidence in their abilities as reporters, and they assemble a rich portfolio of published articles. These experiences help our graduates compete nationally for full-time summer internships and, ultimately, jobs.
Part-time internships (two days each week) are required during fall and winter quarters. A third internship during spring quarter is optional, although most students do one to hone their reporting and writing skills. Students who opt out of the spring internship often submit freelance story proposals to regional and national editors.
We have agreements with editors at three daily newspapers in the Monterey Bay area, each with a circulation of about 25,000. Our interns work at these newspapers as entry-level reporters, covering community news and—quite often—regional stories in science, health, environment, and technology. Each student must complete at least one newspaper internship during either fall or winter quarter.
Our other internship positions span the San Francisco Bay Area at university news offices, radio and television programs, and an aquarium and its research institute. We also offer one quarter of work for a national online news service. Here is the current list of offerings:
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Monterey County Herald
Salinas Californian
ScienceNOW
(Daily online news published by Science)
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
KQED-TV "QUEST" series
(San Francisco affiliate, Public Broadcasting System)
KUSP 88.9 FM
(Santa Cruz affiliate, National Public Radio)
"Are We Alone?"
(Weekly radio program from the SETI Institute)
Stanford University News Service
Stanford School of Medicine Public Affairs
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
(SLAC Today newsletter and symmetry magazine)
UC Santa Cruz Public Information Office
|
Full-time professional summer internship
A successful internship, documented by a letter from a
pleased field supervisor, is important to a student’s early career.
For that reason, full-time internships away from the Santa Cruz campus are
a central part of the program. They serve as our final requirement, in lieu of a thesis.
Such internships provide students with the opportunity to practice and
refine the writing techniques they have learned in class, and to develop
the kind of independence, perseverance, and interpersonal skills needed to
complete substantial projects in a real-world setting. Internships provide
a crucial dimension of the program, for they make possible the first-hand
experience of fast-paced urban professional life that a serious student of
science writing needs to balance the careful attention to craft emphasized
in the program.
Students are responsible for securing their own internships; the program director regularly forwards announcements for regional, national, and international openings. Some internships lead immediately to jobs; other students do two or more internships in the year after graduating.
Here are some of the places that our graduates have had internships:
Magazines
Time
Discover
U.S. News and World Report
The Economist (London)
New Scientist (London)
The Harvard Health Letter
Science News
Business Week
Science
Nature
Scientific American
Popular Science
The American Scientist
Health
California Wild
Oceans
BioScience
IEEE Spectrum
Public information offices
Stanford
University
Stanford
Medical Center
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
NASA
Ames Research Center
California
Institute of Technology
Scripps
Institution of Oceanography
Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory
Harvard
University
Harvard
University Medical Center
The
David and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (Stanford)
National
Cancer Institute
National
Institute of General Medical Sciences
Brookhaven
National Laboratory
CERN
Idaho
National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory
Cornell
Laboratory of Ornithology
Newspapers
Chicago Tribune
The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
The Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch
Newsday
The Dallas Morning News
San Jose Mercury News
Los Angeles Times
The Palo Alto Times-Tribune
Newsday
The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Greenwich
Time
Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel
Pasadena
Star News
The
(Salinas) Californian
The
(Monterey) Herald
Santa
Cruz Sentinel
Other venues
CNN’s science unit
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Sea Studios
Chedd-Angier Productions
The Exploratorium
The National Zoo
National Public Radio
|
| |
|
what will i learn?