Scholarships, AAJA Seattle chapter elections
Applications are now open for Northwest Journalists of Color Scholarships!
Scholarship Opportunities Include:
Northwest Journalists of Color Scholarship – $1,200
Northwest Journalists of Color Visual Journalism Scholarship – DSLR camera kit valued between $2,500-$5,000
Share these scholarship opportunities with your network and aspiring student journalists! Applications are due October 29, 2025, 11:59 pm PST. Apply here!
McGraw Fellowships for business journalism applications open
Applications are now open for the Fall 2025 McGraw Fellowships for Business Journalism, an initiative of the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. The Fellowships provide experienced journalists with a grant up to $15,000 and the editorial support needed to produce deeply reported enterprise and investigative stories with a strong economic or financial angle. The deadline to apply is October 13, 2025. Previous McGraw Fellows have explored a wide variety of issues — and you don’t need to be a business reporter to apply! Many have been generalists, or cover areas such as health care, inequality or the environment. The Fellowship is open to both freelance and staff journalists in all forms of media with at least five years’ professional experience. Journalists from diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply. If you’d like to learn more, go to www.mcgrawcenter.org or join us on Zoom for McGraw Fellowship Office Hours every Thursday through 10/9/25 at 12-1 pm ET.
Join the AAJA Seattle chapter board
We are looking for chapter members interested in serving on our board! In addition to the roles and responsibilities listed below, all board members are expected to collaborate on chapter efforts including fundraising, events and coordinating stipends and scholarships. The board typically meets once per month, and more often closer to event dates.
Please fill out this form by end of day on Wednesday, October 15, if you are interested in running for a role.
Open positions:
President (two-year term)
The president oversees all activities of the chapter and acts as its chief executive officer.
Treasurer (2 years)
The treasurer is responsible for all fiscal activities of the chapter.
Vice President of Membership & Communications (2 years)
The VP of Membership & Communications will maintain and grow our membership list, produce a monthly newsletter and coordinate social media and promotion.
VPs of Events (2 years)
The VPs of Events lead planning and execution of chapter events, including a Lunar New Year celebration, fundraisers and social events. In an effort to stagger terms of the two VPs of Events, we hope this year to elect one for a one-year term and another for a two-year term.
Secretary (2 years)
The secretary will be responsible for making and maintaining meeting minutes and documentation of other chapter activities.
VP of Programs (2 years)
The VP of Programs is responsible for overseeing and coordinating programs including the Northwest Journalists of Color Scholarships and Training Fund. The role includes outreach, coordinating judging panels and leading planning of our annual reception honoring winners.
Student Representative (1 year)
The student representative is a current student who is responsible for building and maintaining connections with students at colleges and universities in Washington, and will help the chapter directly support AAJA’s goal of providing encouragement, information, advice and scholarship assistance to AAPI student journalists.
Per AAJA bylaws, all chapter officers must be full, dues-paying AAJA members. The treasurer of the chapter may, at the approval of the local board of directors, be a full or associate member of the organization.
Need to update your membership with the Seattle AAJA Chapter? Log into or register your portal account then follow these instructions to select or update your chapter and/or AAJA affinity groups.
Support laid off journalists at Cascade PBS
On Monday, Sept. 22, Cascade PBS announced that it would be sunsetting its online news operation at the end of October. As a result, nine members of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild will be losing their jobs: six reporters, a copy editor, an associate photo editor and an associate news editor.
Now, these nine Guild members will soon enter an already shrinking journalism job market. This fund will provide these laid-off staff members with a financial cushion as they enter the job market and seek opportunities for the next chapter of their careers.
This GoFundMe is being organized by stewards of the Seattle Times’ unit of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild. The unit will then coordinate with a committee comprising members of the Cascade PBS unit to determine how the funds will be allocated and distributed to all Guild-represented Cascade staff affected by these layoffs.
