The Project for Better Journalism:
2014 year in review
The Project for Better Journalism is a not-for-profit that helps high schools around the country jump-start journalism programs, with the goal of increasing transparency, collaboration, and diversity for all students. This is the 2014 report.
2014 was the year that the Project for Better Journalism grew up.
It’s often easy to forget that organizations like ours—crafted with youthful hope and idealism—need a careful balance of both vision and pragmatism in their formative years. To work in the educational sector and with institutions in need of innovation asks us to tread this line carefully. We owe as much to those we affect—students, teachers, administrators, and parents. They deserve it.
Today PBJ is a different—and greater—organization than the one it was back in September 2013. Our goals remain the same: we continue to fight relentlessly for transparency, communication, and better educational programs on behalf of students around the country. And the way we achieve them remains the same: bringing strong, student-led and faculty-supported journalism opportunities to schools everywhere.
But as 2015 unfolds, it is pertinent to remember that our organization impacts more people than it ever has before: today we have 10 chapters, support teachers and administrators at numerous schools, and directly impact hundreds of students through our chapters. Indirectly we influence and benefit thousands of students across the country. These numbers are only growing.
For our stakeholders, chapter members, and benefactors to place such trust in a student-run, student-led organization like ours is unique. We do not handle this responsibility lightly. Today I’d like to share with you—as demands our transparent spirit—what PBJ has done in 2014, as well as how we plan to move our organization forward in 2015. We are excited.
Expanding our network and working for equality
To call it an exciting year in terms of new chapters is an gross understatement. Here are some key facts about those twelve months:
- We launched over 10 school chapters in 2014, up from 1 in 2013.
(April 2016 note: This number is now over 50, and only growing.) - Geographic diversity: Our chapters are from all across the country, with Texas, Virginia, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, California, and even Kansas represented.
- Enrollment size diversity: The sizes of the schools with which we work range from 200 to nearly 3,000 enrolled students. Chapter sizes also range in size.
- Environment diversity: We have an even distribution of public and private schools, as well as schools in rural, suburban, and urban areas.
- Strategic partnerships: PBJ works closely with the school administrations of almost all our chapters, supporting their needs as necessary. We also have several “psuedo-chapters,” schools that we support but that do not meet our requirements for chapter status. (They are not included in the 10 official chapters.)
From 1 to 10 is a careful growth rate that represents the vetting and consideration we give each new member. We want to ensure that new schools do not overwhelm our capacity to serve our existing chapters—2014 was also the year we began to turn down many schools as they applied.
The path to social justice
It is important to note one key trait that we are proud our chapters hold: diversity in socioeconomic status.
Our chapters hail from a variety of backgrounds: some elite private schools, and some disadvantaged city communities. Programs like PBJ not only involve students in both these environments, but also bring them together.
It’s crucial that if we want to create equal educational opportunities for students, we need to embrace these differences. I cannot count the number of times we have received an emphatic “thank you!” from teachers who profess that the Project’s work has the ability to change their students. What we do is more than just a journalism program. In many cases, we’re helping change lives.
A stronger leadership and team
The National, “core” team of the Project for Better Journalism now features five national directors, each holding specific responsibilities and duties. Our team is capable and dedicated:
- Our national directors hail from top schools and colleges.
- We’re proud to hold strong diversity on our team, with good racial distribution and near-50/50 gender ratios. PBJ is proud to be an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity organization.
- All graduating team members have a conversation with us and sign a pledge ensuring that they will remain committed as they continue on with the next stage of their lives.
We’re not done. Our team is incredibly important. In 2014 we started our ambassador program, bringing on team members from the very schools we served. Today these ambassadors are very much part of us and we are taking steps to integrate them further into the National team.
Serving our schools better
While our technical product—the Project platform itself—is not the focus of this writing, it too received myriad improvements. What we offer to our schools, beyond ideology, is a concrete product that works. Among additional customization options, security and usability upgrades, and powerful new features, you can find a full list of Stallion changes here.
What’s next?
In 2015, we hope to continue on the groundwork we have already laid. Beyond expanding to more schools and increasing the reach of our network, I hope that 2016 will welcome a Project that is more collaborative, more organized, and even more motivated than it is now—if that is possible!
- We’ll work to launch our first inter-school collaboration, a joint offering between multiple members of our network.
- We’ll try to bring New England-area chapter members—students and faculty—together in a physical room (most likely on the Harvard Univ. campus or another Boston-area location), where we can share thoughts and visions for the future of journalism.
- We’ll begin efforts and continue to analyze our positioning legally as an amorphous organization. The Project will ensure that it can survive fiscally by continuing to raise funds from our benefactors.
- We’ll increase the size of the National team, evaluate its spread, and make consolidation and expansion efforts as necessary. Included is the planned growth of our ambassador program, as well as the growth of our adult advisory network.
- We’ll assemble a top-notch technical team and continue to develop Stallion and our physical offerings so that they beat the competition.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am excited at what 2015 can bring. I hope as we look back on the previous year—and the 16 months of this organization’s existence—that we are struck with a sense of both satisfaction and anticipation. Today’s world has positioned the Project for success.
With my gratitude and eager anticipation,
Brandon
Brandon Wang is the founder of the Project for Better Journalism.
He is also a senior at Phillips Exeter Academy, a founding director for the student initiatives nonprofit Sponsr.Us, and the creator of Schooltraq.
