Apply for a 2022-2023 Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism in Latin America

The program is open to bilingual journalists (English and Spanish) who work for media outlets in Latin America, in any format or platform, and who have at least three years of professional experience. The two journalists selected as fellows will receive US$5,000 each.

The fellowships are administered by an interdisciplinary team in the Faculties of Communication and Medicine in Universidad de La Sabana in Bogotá, Colombia.

What do the winners receive?

The two fellows (or teams) selected will receive US$5,000 each to investigate a topic related to mental health or mental illness in Latin America for one year. Fellows will not have to leave their jobs or responsibilities to be eligible for a fellowship.

Fellows will have access to online training on journalism and mental health through The Carter Center at the beginning and end of the fellowship year, and will be supported by experts in mental health and journalism from the university. 

Fellows will also receive guidance from mental health experts while they work on their projects. Fellows will have one year (September 2022 to September 2023) to produce and present the result of their work online at the conference organized in Atlanta, at the end of the fellowship.

Fellows must produce pieces of investigative journalism in any format and that have a strong impact on the public discourse or policy.

Applicant Requirements

• Applicant journalists must understand and speak English and demonstrate those skills. If they are selected, they must first explain their projects and then their results in English before the members of the Fellowship Advisory Committee and other international fellows, during their virtual meetings with the Carter Center and Universidad de La Sabana.

• The applicant must have the support of a media outlet through a letter of support signed by their editor, director or supervisor, in which the outlet makes a commitment to support the application and publication of the project.

• Fellows are NOT required to resign their employment because they are fellowship recipients.

• Applicants must submit an essay of no more than 1,000 words on a proposed project related to mental health or mental illness in one or several countries or regions of Latin America.

• As an exceptional case, applicants may apply in pairs to one of the $5,000 fellowships. This award will be split 50-50%. The pair of winners will be able to train and present their project at the online event at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Both participants must understand English.

Requirements to apply

To apply, applicants must send the following documents until July 10, 2022, at midnight (Colombian time) to the following email becacarter@unisabana.edu.co:

• Resume: It must include the academic and work history of the applicant, a list of the publications, awards or recognitions, if any, and the year in which they were awarded. If applying as a team of two journalists, the main applicant must attach the two resumes in a single Word or PDF document.

• Objectives of the fellowship and description of the project: Submit an essay of no more than 1,000 words in Times New Roman, 12 point font, describing your reasons for applying, the mental health project you would develop, the expected impact, and how the fellowship would benefit your career and your work. You must specify the format that you will publish the project (ex. newspaper, magazine, radio, television, online etc.).

• Professional Work Samples: Applicants must submit three work samples. The samples may or may not be related to health issues. At least one of these examples must be in the format of the proposed medium (newspaper, magazine, radio, television or online).

• Letter of support from the media outlet that supports the journalist’s application: In this letter, the outlet must endorse the application and commit to publishing/broadcasting the stories that are produced as a result of the fellowship.

• Applicants will apply by sending all the documents as an attachment to the email becacarter@unisabana.edu.co electronically in PDF format through July 10, 2021, at midnight (12 a.m., Colombia time). Only electronic applications will be accepted.

• Three evaluators will use a standard rubric to evaluate the projects and applicants. The results will be announced on August 10, 2022.

• The fellowship will last for one year, from September 2022 to September 2023. Fellows will have to present the results of their research and publications.

About the Fellowship

The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, created in 1996, has benefited and trained numerous journalists in the United States, Romania, South Africa, New Zealand, and Latin America. The goal of the fellowship is to improve the quality of mental health reporting in regions where it is most needed and to help partner countries sustain the fellowship’s activities. This fellowship is part of an international effort by The Carter Center’s Mental Health Program to reduce stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness. The fellowship is administered in Latin America in Bogotá. It has awarded fellowships to Colombian journalists since 2013 and across the Latin American region since 2019.

Alumni of the program have produced more than 1,400 mental health-related stories, documentaries, books and other works. Projects have won Emmy Awards, nominations for the Pulitzer Prize, the Edward R. Murrow Award, awards from Metal Health America, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association, Amnesty International and the Association of Health Care Journalists.

Program Goals

The three goals of the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism are:

• Increase rigorous and truthful reporting on mental health issues reduce incorrect and stigmatized information on these issues.

• Help journalists to publish high quality work that reflects a true understanding of mental health issues, through connection to specialized sources and resources in this field.

• Encourage the emergence of a group of journalists who can report rigorous and accurate information in the media and who will encourage other media to report with the same rigor.

The Fellowship in Colombia

For more information about the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism in Latin America, please call the Fellowship administrator in Colombia, Dr. Víctor García-Perdomo, at +57 1 8 61-5555 ext: 26705 or email victor.garcia2@unisabana.edu.co

Physical address

Beca Rosalynn Carter de Periodismo para Salud Mental LATAM
Universidad de La Sabana
Facultades de Comunicación y Medicina
Campus Puente del Común
Kilómetro 7 Autopista Norte de Bogotá
Chía, Cundinamarca

For more information about the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, in Atlanta, please visit www.cartercenter.org/MHJFellows