Renewal of Medill Comer Scholars Program

A core tenet of Northwestern University’s (NU) mission is to educate and inspire talented, driven students, regardless of their financial circumstances. The University endeavors to endow these students with the skills, knowledge, and connections needed for them to serve as leaders following their experiences at NU. The Comer Scholars program exemplifies this combination of education and engagement, bringing top-tier Masters of Science in Journalism (MSJ) candidates from across the world to the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, where they study techniques for reporting science, the environment and climate change. The new generation of career environmental journalists who have graduated as Comer Scholars marks this program’s clear success. Building on that success, we launched an MSJ Health, Environment and Science Specialization in 2016. Applicants have nearly doubled since, allowing us to admit an even stronger group of aspiring environmental reporters and further improve their training to make the Comer Scholars program a transformative force for the field of environmental journalism. Recognizing the extraordinary value of the Scholars program, Medill has matched the Comer Scholarship funds so that we can mentor six scholars instead of three each academic year.