The Scripps Howard Institute on the Environment is an intensive week-long program of continuing education for professional journalists in print or electronic media – writers, editors and producers – who report on environmental topics. Hosted by Florida Atlantic University, the South Florida program is entering its fourth year and preparing for the spring 2009 session. Although headquartered at FAU’s Jupiter campus north of West Palm Beach, the institute reaches well beyond the campus, merging classroom lectures with exploratory trips to natural areas and research stations – from condo-crowded coast to the sugar cane covered farm lands south of Lake Okeechobee, from aquamarine Indian River Lagoon to the signature saw grass of the Everglades. Participants traverse a rich setting for environmental study, a regional landscape high in biodiversity but heavily invaded by exotics, whipsawed by flood and drought, engulfed in suburban sprawl but pocked with remnant and spacious wildlife habitat and rewired forever by drainage canals, pumps and levees.

The 2009 agenda will be reworked with input from a new advisory board to make it more relevant to both inland and coastal journalists. While water and wetlands will continue to be a theme they may not be as prominent as before. The board currently is comprised of three award-winning environmental journalists -- Jeff Burnside of NBC-6 Miami; Craig Pittman of the St. Petersburg Times and Robert McClure of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The institute is hosted by FAU’s School of Communication and Multimedia Studies and directed by journalism professor Neil Santaniello with assistance from the Florida Center for Environmental Studies.

The 2009 program is under development. To learn about the 2008 program, please see the program description and the 2008 agenda.

Application deadline: March 31, 2009
Program Date: To be determined, but typically sometime in May.
Location: Florida Atlantic University, John D. MacArthur Campus, Jupiter, Florida
Applicants: Print, broadcast and electronic journalists (reporters, editors, producers)

Apply for the 2009 Scripps Howard Institute on the Environment!

You may also contact program director Neil Santaniello at nsantane@fau.edu or 561-799-8047.