Going on assignment (optional – after the course)

Stay in Prague, or head out to Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic states, or the Balkans to do your own reporting. We’ll team you up with a local TOL contributor who will help you to report a feature story from your chosen destination. Our contributors are local journalists and will help you by acting as translators and “fixers,” including arranging interviews, selecting a good story subject, and finding local accommodation.

The length of the trip will depend on you, but we suggest at least a week. You can write your story on the road or back in Prague. TOL editors and training staff from the course will edit and provide feedback in one-on-one sessions. Stories compatible with TOL standards of quality will be published on our website and distributed globally through our syndication system.

To give you some ideas of recent articles produced by course participants, Barbara Levin, a California Polytechnic State University, originally from Denmark, wrote a feature story on the de facto segregation of Roma students in the Czech Republic and a new law intended to improve the situation. Sandra Dondenne, a press officer for the World Trade Organization, explored the economic recovery of Bohemia’s fabled decorative glass industry. And to give you an example of one of the many successful alumni of our program, Andres Schipani-Aduriz, then a journalism student at Cardiff University, and Alyaksandr Kudrytski, a TOL correspondent in Belarus, wrote an excellent piece on Belarusian youth movements. Andres went on to study at Oxford University and is now the Andes correspondent for the Financial Times.

When? This additional exercise will be held immediately after the main course, in January 2018.

Am I eligible? This exercise can only be undertaken by participants enrolled in the January 2018 Going on Assignment course.

How much does it cost? The cost (to cover accommodation and personal tuition) depends on the location and length of stay. If you would like us to arrange an assignment for you, please contact education@tol.org no later than November 15, 2017.