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Support Quality Journalism

Now, more than ever, teaching a new generation of journalists is important work. It’s a mission we embrace at Cal Poly. Our Learn by Doing approach empowers graduates to tackle the challenges increasingly faced by the profession. Through their experiences here, students learn to uphold values like accuracy, impartiality and humanity, while they master the latest storytelling technologies.


Journalism students in broadcast studio

To help with our mission, alumni created the Journalism Endowment to meet the needs of students and faculty in the decades ahead.

The idea is simple: A thousand alumni each contribute $1,000 to create a $1 million endowment. The fund holds its principal and pays out a small portion annually to support enrichment activities in the department.

A $1 million endowment would:

  • Make it possible for students — regardless of means — to take internships in prestigious media organizations  that can jumpstart their careers
  • Keep faculty on the cutting edge of our profession
  • Support students in telling stories about the important issues facing our world
  • Allow the department to respond quickly to technical advances

The endowment also helps fund The Jim Hayes Symposium, a program launched in 2016 to advance integrity in journalism and communication.

Contributions to the endowment can be made all at once or spread over four years — in annual payments of $250 or in monthly payments of $20 deducted automatically from a credit card or bank account.

This effort is a part of Cal Poly's newly launched comprehensive philanthropic campaign The Power of Doing: The Campaign for Learn by Doing, whose goal of raising $700 million will go towards initiatives like this that support the university’s acclaimed practice of Learn by Doing.

Your support is critical to the Journalism Department’s mission. Help us give our students the confidence and skills they need to ensure journalism’s strong future.

Make a gift today 

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