2020 SJI Boot Camp Going Virtual

The 2020 edition of the Sports Journalism Institute’s annual “boot camp” will offer a different experience for students, instructors and speakers. The class will live in the virtual world, with instruction all online, via Zoom, because of ongoing issues surrounding the coronavirus.

Boot camp will run the week of June 1 and we are again working with our partners at Arizona State University to roll out a robust curriculum. As always, we will include professional voices such as David Squires, Malcolm Moran, Michael Wilbon, Paola Boivin, Richard Deitsch and Dr. Scott Brooks, plus SJI alum including Malika Andrews, Cam Wolfe and others.

“It will be a tremendous, robust online opportunity for the students as we continue to deal with the real world realities,” said Leon Carter, co-founder/co-director of SJI and a vice president at ESPN. “There will be deadline assignments, writing opportunities, and of course the dreaded Sports Check each day. This year’s SJI class represents our 28th and I am looking forward to it.”

Students in the class of 16 will move on to internships as health guidelines permit. Some may work from home, and some internships may be onsite but might move to a different time frame. As with many things these days, much of those details are still TBD.

In preparation for boot camp, students will again be reporting on the state of the industry as well as doing profiles of newsmakers and blogging about their experiences. We will post links to their work during boot camp.

We also want to thank our many partners and sponsors, including ASU’s Cronkite School, APSE, NABJ, NAHJ, AAJA, AWSM, the Gannett Foundation, USA Today and its network of publications, and ESPN and the entire Disney family.