Only six (6) spots are available for five (5) members of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) and one member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ). 

Thank you for your interest in New U: News Entrepreneurs Working through UNITY, a project funded by the Ford Foundation and supported by UNITY: Journalists of Color. This project is designed to give journalists of color training in entrepreneurship, and support them as they develop their specific business concepts using the tools New U provides.

Those accepted as a New U Fellow become part of a unique team: each Fellow is assigned a direct mentor who has already launched a small business.  Participants will also spend two and a half tightly-scheduled days listening to and learning from industry experts – venture capitalists, legal experts, marketing and communications professionals, writers and people who call themselves “serial entrepreneurs”.

This program is intended to increase the numbers of innovative thinkers and product developers who are of color, providing them a forum in which to learn skills from experts that enable them to express and grow their own business ideas.

To that end, you must have an idea, and it must be a refined one in at least the early stages of development, preferably already operating but in need of further capital; also, you must have at least the seeds of a business plan. We are not looking for the next search engine.  We are not looking for another iPhone app. We are not looking for a idea that would need millions of dollars.  We are looking for people who have a relatively simple idea and need some good, old-fashioned experiential coaching in how to turn their idea (or themselves) into a sustainable business.

Please complete the application and pay special attention to being concise and clear in your exposition. We’ve tried to keep the point of entry to this project very simple so you can spend more time pitching your idea and less on adhering to mind-numbing bureaucracy and nonsensical rules.

The 2012 Start-up Camp will take place in Las Vegas preceding the UNITY 2012 Convention.

About the New U Program:

New U: News Entrepreneurs Working Through UNITY is a competitive program for journalists of color who want to become entrepreneurs.  Begun in late 2009 and officially launched in 2010, it supports and helps grow the creative ideas of participants (known as fellows) through a national fall “boot camp”.  In addition to offering a unique formula based in training and one-on-one mentoring, the program includes a competition for start-up funding to assist entrepreneurs in realizing their ideas.

Since its inception nearly two years ago, the New U program has trained a total of 30 entrepreneurs and awarded four (4) $5,000 each start-up grants from the 2010 class and three (3) $10,000 each start-up grants from the 2011 class.  One additional $10,000 start-up grant will be awarded from the Native American Journalists’ Association 2012 class.

Questions? Contact program directors Doug Mitchell (dmitchell@unityjournalists.org) and Alli Joseph (ajoseph@unityjournalists.org) with questions or to express interest in New U 2012.

NUMBER OF FELLOWSHIPS TO BE AWARDED AND ATTEND TRAINING: 6

NUMBER OF START-UP GRANTS TO BE AWARDED: 1

APPLICATION DEADLINE: JUNE 20, 2012, 5:00 PM (EST)