East-West Center Jefferson Journalism Fellowships 2025 in the USA, Indonesia & Thailand

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About East-West Center Jefferson Journalism Fellowships

Program Overview

Theme: The Future of Food Security: Lessons from Southeast Asia
Dates: October 5-23, 2025
Destinations: Honolulu, Indonesia, and Thailand

This year’s Jefferson Fellowships will explore growing concern about food security in the Southeast Asia region caused by changing environmental conditions, rising prices, declining fisheries, and disruptions in global supply chains.

The need for journalists to address this topic is clear. In Southeast Asia, home to four of the top eight global exporters of rice, substantial deficits and declining yields in rice production are driving twin public health and economic crises. 7 in 10 Southeast Asians said they experienced food insecurity in 2024, up a startling 10% from the previous year. 2023's global rice deficit of over 8 million tons was the largest such shortage in almost 20 years, resulting in soaring prices and exacerbating hunger for those with the least purchasing power:

Already economically vulnerable communities are falling into deepened states of food insecurity and financial hardship, causing great public health concerns throughout the region. Rice consumption constitutes approximately 50% of calorie intake in Southeast Asian diets; agricultural production makes up over 10% of the regional economy. With such high dependence on the grain, a shortage in rice supplies will increase the incidences of public health issues and poverty among Southeast Asians.

Center for Strategic & International Studies

Future threats to rice production including economic pressures, environmental changes, limited water and land resources, and inefficient agricultural practices all point to future volatility that the South China Morning Post characterizes as a “ticking time bomb.” These impacts—and the myriad efforts by governments, NGOs, and communities to mitigate them—offer timely and compelling stories for the 2025 Jefferson Fellows to explore.

Participant Obligations

An essential element of the Jefferson Fellowships is its journalist-to-journalist professional exchange. Each Fellow is required to:

• Prepare and submit a short paper (1,000–1,500 words) several weeks prior to their arrival at the Center. Papers should address the theme and discuss how the journalist’s home country or region/field of coverage – at the government, private sector and/or socio-cultural level – is responding to the issue.
• Prepare an oral presentation (approximately 10-15 minutes) based on the previously submitted paper and participate in discussion of his or her topic. The purpose of the presentations is to leverage the knowledge and experience of participating journalists in ways that are professionally useful to fellow participants as they study, assess, and report on the theme of the fellowship as well as the Indo-Pacific region. 

• Sponsor Organisation: The East–West Center (EWC)

Benefits of East-West Center Jefferson Journalism Fellowships

Funding for the Jefferson Fellowships is provided by the Freeman Foundation, the Mary Morgan Hewett Fund, the East-West Center, and cost-sharing contributions by Fellows and their news organizations. These funds provide for 10-14 full or partial scholarships, including approximately 2-4 for qualified American journalists and 8-10 for Indo-Pacific journalists. A full scholarship for the 2024 Jefferson Fellowships includes: 

• Roundtrip airfare to and from participant’s home country and throughout the study tour 
• Lodging in each of the cities 
• Program meals and a modest per diem to cover meals not provided 
• Ground transportation and airport transfers 
• Cultural activities and networking opportunities 
• Interpretation as needed 
• Speaker honoraria, partner organization costs, and meeting rooms 
• Experienced escort and professionally organized program of meetings and visits, often with unique access to speakers and communities. 

All Fellows must pay an USD$900.00 program fee to cover costs not provided by the scholarship funds. Fellows are also responsible for all applicable visa fees and visa-related expenses, health insurance, and baggage fees.  

East-West Center Jefferson Journalism Fellowships Requirements

Ideal candidates:

• Are a print, broadcast, or online journalist working in the Indo-Pacific region, including the United States.
• Possess at least 5 years of professional journalism experience.
• Have the ability to communicate in English in a professional setting.

Preference will be given to journalists who clearly articulate the relevance of the theme to their areas of coverage and how they intend to use the knowledge gained to enhance the perspectives of viewers, readers, and listeners. Journalists are strongly encourage to generate content during and after the program in the form of formal print and broadcast stories, blogs, and social media communications.

The Indo-Pacific Region

For the Jefferson Fellowships, the Indo-Pacific region includes Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, New Zealand, Niue, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga, Tuvalu, United States, Vanuatu, and Vietnam.

Given there are few full scholarships available, they strongly encourage media organizations to cost share program expenses and/or airfare. Cost sharing is seen as an indication of the commitment of media organizations to the value of the program and their willingness to invest in the participating journalist. It is an important consideration of the Selection Committee. The “Employer’s Statement of Support” indicating cost sharing is required for all applicants. Journalists also are welcome to offer cost sharing on their own or identify other sponsors to cost share participation, such as local foundations.

Application Date and Process

Applicants must submit each of the following documents to be considered:

• The online 2025 Jefferson Fellowships application form.
• A letter of interest (maximum 3 pages, double-spaced). Letter should include: (1) a brief description of your news organization or freelance work, job duties and experience; (2) what you expect to accomplish and what issues you want to explore during the program, including specific story ideas; (3) the relevance of the theme to your audiences and areas of coverage; (4) how participation will benefit your work as journalist. Please also include a proposed topic for the paper and presentation you will share as part of the Fellowship (see Participant Obligations below).
• Résumé or Curriculum Vitae (maximum 2 pages).
• An employer's statement of support completed by the applicant's supervisor/employer indicating that the applicant has the support of their media organization to attend the Fellowship. (Does not apply to freelance journalists.)
• Two (2) professional references with letters of recommendation.

For full details and to apply, please visit the 2025 Jefferson Fellowships application portal.

Application Deadline

13 April, 2025

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