What: Opportunity for Burns alumni to receive travel/research stipends to travel to Germany or the United States

Who can apply: Alumni of the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship

Stipend amount and number of available stipends: Maximum grant amount is $4000 and number of grants awarded will depend on each grant amount. Stipend winners will be selected by a review board consisting of a member of the U.S. Board of Trustees and representatives of ICFJ and IJP.

How to apply: Send a detailed outline of your research/reporting project, including cost estimate; medium and style (newspaper, radio, television, online; feature or investigative news, etc.); projected date and outlet for publication/airing; and confirmation of interest by media organization; to:

The Arthur F. Burns Fellowship
c/o International Center for Journalists (ICFJ)
1616 H Street, NW, Third Floor
Washington, DC 20006
E-mail: burns@icfj.org

These stipends are intended for special projects, which will enhance the view of Germany, the United States, and/or transatlantic relations in general. They are not intended to save costs for media outlets to send reporters overseas. There is no application deadline, and selection of approved proposals will be ongoing throughout the year.

Brian Zumhagen (1994) is the most recent recipient of the stipend. He traveled to Germany to report on the 20th high school reunion where he spent a year as an exchange student. His class of 1989 reunion coincides with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. His story was broadcast on WNYC.

Click here to read Zumhagen's story.
The stand-alone feature on the Department's site can be found here.

Click here to read the Transcript of "Tear Down This Quote," from NPR's On The Media.

Matt Johansen (1995) traveled to Germany in the fall of 2007 to report on global climate change. Johansen talked to the architect of Zugspitze's ski slopes about this recent phenomenon.

Click here to read Johansen's story.

An excerpt of the global warming piece was also published on the German Life web site

Stephen Kettman (1999) received a Burns alumni stipend in 2005. Currently based in Berlin, Kettmann, a freelance journalist and author, traveled to Europe in 2006 for research on a book he is writing about last-minute high-level diplomacy efforts prior to the start of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Sheryl Oring (1997), the first recipient of the stipend, traveled to Germany before Germany's Federal Elections in September 2005. Visiting produce markets and city squares, she asked passerby what they would do if they were the chancellor. She then typed their messages onto postcards that they could send to then-chancellor Gerhard Schröder or to his conservative challenger, Angela Merkel.

Click here to read Oring’s final report (Word document).