Danielle Parenteau and Mahlia Posey Chosen for New York Times Student Journalism Institute

Mahlia Posey was at her young cousin’s basketball tournament when she got the call. “I could hardly hear the man between all my cheering. I played it off like, ‘Yeah, okay, thanks for calling!'”

She had just been accepted into The New York Times Student Journalism Institute along with Danielle Parenteau, both J-School students in the Class of 2017. During the institute, which runs May and June, students report, edit and produce material that meets the standards of one of the most prestigious and demanding news organizations in the world, under the supervision of Times reporters and editors. This year, participants must be members of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) or the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ). The institute will be held at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in Manhattan.

“It became real once I got the email about being accepted in the video department, and then I really freaked out and told my family and friends,” says Posey.

“It feels like my hard work is paying off,” says Parenteau. “It also feels great to be recognized by an organization I respect as much as The New York Times.”

Both Parenteau’s and Posey’s strong portfolios gave them an edge. “We were quite impressed with the work that they’ve done so far, both academically and in terms of preparing themselves for careers in journalism,” says Richard Jones, director of the institute. “Mahlia has been at the [San Francisco] Chronicle as well as NBC News with Lester Holt, and Danielle made quite an impression as a Dow Jones News Fund Intern in Sacramento. It speaks to these students and how they’re preparing themselves and the sacrifices they’ve made.”

“We’ve had quite a few Bears, both at our student journalism institute and at our summer internship program, which is the most competitive journalism internship program in the country,” says Jones. “It’s pretty rare for a university to land a couple of students in the class.”

Parenteau, a California native, graduated summa cum laude with a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University. In the summer of 2016, she was chosen as a Dow Jones News Fund Copy Editing Intern, working on the multiplatform copy desk at the Sacramento Bee as part of a team that produces five daily newspapers, including the Bee. She has also interned at the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

In 2016, she was awarded the Pete Wilson Journalism Scholarship from the Radio Television Digital News Foundation to support her thesis project about misconceptions and media narratives surrounding poverty. Her own family experiences, about which she has written candidly, have only strengthened her writing.

Posey, from Las Vegas, Nev., studied English and film at Howard University. After graduating magna cum laude, she spent a year with Americorps at the University of Nevada before coming to the J-School, where she is a Dean’s Merit Fellow, a Johnathan Rodgers Fellow, and a School Merit Fellow. Last summer, she interned at the NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.

Parenteau is excited to learn from people who work at The Times and benefit from a program that describes itself as “one of the most effective networking opportunities available to young journalists,” and has hundreds of successful alums. “Even though I will be there as a copy editor, I hope the experience will help my reporting as well. I hope I will be able to both build my network and make friends,” she says.

From web video to print to new media, Posey says she’s ready to learn from the best. She’s excited about one media platform in particular. “The Times is starting a Snapchat Discover page, which is my favorite form of news right now, so if there’s any way I could sit in on those budget meetings and pitch some stuff to them, I would die.”

By Katherine Rose (’17)