The Merck Science Journalism Awards Program

Students selected by their universities for the Merck Science Journalism Student Awards Program receive a $1,000 scholarship and join their faculty mentors for an intensive four-day seminar at Rutgers University in April or May.

The program was started in 1994 with five participating journalism programs. It has since been expanded to include eight universities and will include 10 schools in 2004. A majority of the participating universities sent students from their graduate programs. The eight universities that participated in 2003 were:

• Columbia University
• Boston University
• Howard University
• University of Maryland
• University of Missouri
• New York University
• University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
• Rutgers University.

The students and faculty have all expenses paid, and the students are asked to prepare advanced memoranda on their studies, field experience and future career hopes. Faculty come prepared to share their own experience in the classroom and identify future curricular ideas. They bring back concepts that can be incorporated into their own programs.

During their stay at Rutgers, the faculty and students meet with prominent print and electronic journalists who cover the fields of health and science, both on campus and during a visit to key news media outlets in New York City. News outlets visited in 2003 included the New York Times, Reuters and the BBC. The keynote speaker was Peter Frishauf, founder of Medscape.com.They also meet with scientists at the Merck Research Laboratories in Rahway for a briefing on some of its important research projects.

All the seminars are on the record and one goal is to distill the best ideas that percolate from these encounters and share them with a broader audience. For the purpose, the results of the discussions and other materials are posted to a Web site being created as part of the program.

The aim of the Web site is to connect current participants with the more than 50 past winners and help ensure that the benefits of the program are spread beyond the participants. This will provide useful resources to the science and health journalism community and foster a continuing dialogue on the education and practice of heath and science journalists.