2026 Community Journalism Class: Citizen as journalist

ABOUT PUBLIC SQUARE:

Public Square Amplified (PSA) is a grassroots local nonprofit newsroom founded by a team of Black women with over 80 years of combined experience in the nonprofit, journalism, and community organizing sectors headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.

PSA positions journalism as a civic tool and creates a pipeline for a new cadre of local journalists of color representing their geographic and ethnic communities to deconstruct our shared racialized space and the power of construct and context in curating and consuming news. Our reporting centers on democracy, social and economic justice, racial equality, and the immigrant experience rooted in community.

We are telling the story of New Jerseyans from the perspective of New Jersey, the nation, and the world.

OUR MISSION:

PSA positions journalism as a civic tool and creates a pipeline for a new cadre of local journalists of color representing their geographic and ethnic communities.

OUR VALUES:

  • Our community is us

  • Centering Race, community, and justice

  • Social justice movements

  • Curious mind

  • Sense of adventure

  • Transparency

  • Honesty

  • Doggedness

  • Keen sense of humor

  • Willingness to be wrong

  • Open to learning

  • Allowance to hear the other

  • Working in a team

OVERVIEW

PSA's "Citizen as Journalist" Class of 2026 will take participants through an experiential learning process that inspires storytelling that centers the voice of activists, students, workers, and immigrants.

The class will focus on three modules of learning:

  • Civics

  • News Reporting

  • Opinion Writing

Participants will learn to manipulate journalism tools to explore and document their storytelling to engage in first-person reporting. Participants will be exposed to multimedia production, long-form writing, sourcing, interviewing, and more.

The class opens the storytelling world to community members who are untrained in journalism and news reporting and creates spaces for them to witness events that impact their lives and the transformation of their communities. Those members who are working journalists will be exposed to new ways of centering the peripheral voice and social movements.

TIME COMMITMENT

Classes will take place in PSA's virtual newsroom with periods of hands-on, in-the-community news-story gathering. The introductory class and the final wrap-up class and celebration will be held in person near PSA's headquarters in Newark.

  • Class begins the morning of Saturday, June 27, 2026, and runs each Saturday through August 15, 2026.

  • Class will not be held on the weekend of July 4, in commemoration of US Independence Day.

  • Class sessions are three (3) hours.

  • Time will be assigned for class preparation, including assigned readings, videos, and community meetings to support the ongoing training and assignments. 

COMPENSATION

Class participants could qualify for a maximum stipend of up to $3,000.00*.

DELIVERABLES

Participants will engage in a collaborative news gathering process and produce collective content through writing, videography, and audio with rigorous research.

By the conclusion of the class schedule, each participant is expected to produce at minimum:

  1. Three (3) published stories*

*Subject to change based on funding—the amount may decrease or increase.

APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED!

NOTIFICATION: Class of 2026 will be announced by June 12, 2026.

The Community Journalism course is made possible by the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, and our community members.

Meet the Editorial Advisors

Ande Richards

Ande Richards is a multimedia journalist committed to using storytelling as a transformative medium. She thinks democracy is malleable – it’s what you make it.

Linda McDonald Carter

Linda McDonald Carter is a retired associate professor of government and former director of the Paralegal Studies Program at Essex County College. She is a well-sought after speaker on the political history of the U.S.A.

Macollvie J Neel

Macollvie J. Neel is an award-winning journalist, communications consultant, and author focused on elevating voices in media spaces and workplaces through impactful storytelling that empowers and advances equity. Having worked across disciplines for two decades, she is adept at activating storytelling to drive impact. Currently, Macollvie is an editor at The Haitian Times and an adjunct lecturer in journalism at City College (CUNY)

Meet the 2026 “Citizens as Journalists” Class

Sophia Campise

Sophia Campise is a student, writer, PSA Community Reporter, and youth advocate with a strong interest in public policy, civic engagement, and community storytelling. She is passionate about exploring how local issues shape people's daily lives and believes journalism plays a vital role in strengthening communities.

Ryan Novosielski

Ryan Novosielski has been a Newark resident since 2004, after graduating from Rutgers College in New Brunswick with a major in Criminal Justice and minors in Psychology and Political Science. I grew up in Bergen County (Rutherford), a few miles up the river. I currently work for Rutgers University, formerly UMDNJ, in the Office of Advanced Research Computing, managing the Amarel supercomputer.

Angel Ruano

Born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, by parents born and raised in El Salvador, Angel Ruano describes himself as a person who is beautifully stumbling through life, while craving a medium to radically present the way they see things. Angel is a product of Essex County College, the GlassRoots Peters Valley Fellowship, and the Glass Arts Internship. He is now a Museum Educator at The Newark Museum of Art and a staff member at The Newark Culture Club.

Jennah Cherry-Romain

Jennah Cherry-Romain is a Newark-based emerging freelance writer with growing experience in multimedia storytelling. I’m currently focused on building a strong foundation in writing and media production, with an emphasis on clear communication, storytelling, and visual content.

Amiri Tulloch

Amiri Tulloch is a multimedia journalist and educator from Middlesex County, New Jersey. Amiri is passionate about community storytelling, interviewing, and reporting. Amiri uses the medium of writing, photography, videography, and audio to document community issues and politics, art and artists, and youth and education, through the lens of Black American life and history. As an educator, Amiri currently teaches 5th grade history at North Star Academy in Newark, New Jersey.

Sheguyma Bazile

Sheguyma Bazile is a second-year student at Rutgers University-Newark, studying Public & Nonprofit Administration and Sociology from Trenton, NJ, striving to become an urban planner who helps design and implement policies, infrastructure, and community-driven initiatives that expand ownership, opportunity, and quality of life in historically marginalized neighborhoods.

Gary Wise

Gary Wise was born in the year of the Newark riots. Professionally known as Jakim Sha Mind Cee Wise, Gary is a hip-hop blacktavist, street-culture consultant, carceral-space survivor, community organizer, and long-standing advocate of N.O.G.E. existentialism. While serving a 40-year term, Gary participated in the inmate legal associations, motion, writing, and basic research classes. The inmate legal association is a nonprofit organization.