Our Mission

Mosaic aims to provide the news in our community; teach journalism skills to youth from underserved areas and groups; and diversify the ranks of professional journalists. Mosaic works to amplify the voices of student journalists and fill the gap in news relevant to young people, immigrants, low-income families, and residents of East and downtown San Jose.  Our mission has become more urgent as local media capacity has eroded.

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For three decades, the Mosaic Journalism Program in San Jose has focused on training underserved teens in journalism skills and empowering them to write about and photograph the issues important to them. Mosaic offers three programs: 

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1. Summer Workshop -  Our intensive three-week summer workshop is held at San Jose State University. The session includes lessons in reporting, interviewing, writing, photography, and podcasting — and most important, learning by doing. Students pitch story and photo ideas and set out to work on them, coached by journalism professionals. They produce a 12-page broadsheet paper and post stories and photos on our website and on the Mercury News’ online Mosaic page. Read published articles here.

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2. Internship - Our twice-yearly internships enable our summer alumni to continue covering the news and build their journalistic skills.  Learn more.

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3. Teacher support - Our staff offers boot camps, mentoring, and material support to high school and community college journalism teachers and classes.  

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Mosaic alumni have gone on to work for the nation's top newspapers, online sites and other news outlets. Others have established successful professional careers in the public, private and non-profit sectors, aided by the skills and confidence they gained during the Mosaic workshop. 

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We depend on donations to offer our high-quality program to educate and inspire future journalists! We thank you for your support.

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Winter-spring internship

 

The Mosaic Journalism spring internship is open to high school and college alumni of Mosaic summer workshops and boot camps. It will run from January to March 2025, with a one-week break. We require interns to meet in person every Saturday morning; (except Jan. 18 and Feb. 15, both holiday weekends).  Interns may focus on one of three areas: reporting, photography, or podcasting. They will work under the guidance of a professional journalist and will be required to meet virtually with them at least once weekly to discuss work progress.

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Thank you!