We are now taking applications for the USBWA Mentorship Program. You can apply here or click on the banner below. The deadline to apply is Dec. 20, 2021. If you have any questions about the program or issues with the application process, contact Executive Director Malcolm Moran at malcolm@usbwa.com.

The U.S. Basketball Writers Association invites college students to apply to a mentoring program for the 2021-22 basketball season.

The inaugural program will match selected students with USBWA members who will critique written work, support development of reporting skills and offer suggestions on how to approach and navigate the job market.

Applicants should be full-time undergraduate students from two-year or four-year institutions or graduate students during the Spring, 2022 semester with a demonstrated interest in becoming a sports journalist.

The application deadline is Dec. 20, 2021 at 5 p.m. (ET).

Here is the original letter from 2020-21 USBWA President Seth Davis that launched the program last season ...

Dec. 2, 2020

Dear USBWA Members,

With the start of the college basketball season – bet you never thought we'd get here, right? – I wanted to reach out to let you all know about an exciting new initiative our organization is launching this winter, one in which I hope many of you will be eager to participate.

In the coming weeks, we are going to start a USBWA mentorship program that will pair college students who are interested in pursuing a career in journalism with a participating USBWA member. I have assembled an outreach committee comprised of people in the academic world as well as the mentoring industry to provide us with ideas and feedback along the way. We are also going to be working with organizations like ours in other areas of the media to help us identify students and maximize the program's impact as it grows.

I am acutely aware your time is valuable, so we are crafting this program to ensure that the commitment will not be too onerous. Broadly speaking we will be asking you to have a minimum of four 45-minute conversations with the student over the course of the academic year and be willing to communicate electronically from time to time. Those communications will include reading the student's work and providing feedback, crafting story ideas and reporting techniques, using your relationships to help with access opportunities, helping the student get published, and assisting the student's efforts to network into a future job.

The purpose of this program is threefold. First and foremost, we want to pass along proper practices and ethics to the next generation of journalists. Second, we want to help diversify our industry to make sure it is more representative of our readers and viewers. And third, we want to identify potential new members for the USBWA.

If you are interested in becoming a mentor, please email us at mentors@usbwa.com. Once we have a sense of how many mentors we have, we will announce this program and invite students to apply through the USBWA's website. (I am counting on all of you to help us spread the word through your social media platforms.) We are going to keep the scale of this program manageable in year one, but if all goes well I am hopeful it will expand in future years so that we can continue to honor the mission of the USBWA, now in its 65th year.

Thank you for your help and participation in this exciting project. Please stay healthy and safe, and most of all enjoy the season!

Sincerely,

Seth Davis
2020-21 USBWA President
The Athletic/CBS Sports