Announcing the Untapped New York Urban Journalism Fellowship!

We are excited to announce the Untapped New York Journalism Fellowship, a six-month part-time fellowship program that supports emerging voices in the field of urban journalism. Over the last fifteen-plus years, Untapped New York has borne witness to the drastic decline in local journalism in New York City, particularly as it relates to issues of urban development, architecture, and the built environment. But what could be more important than the environment in which we live and interact with every day? 

The Untapped New York Journalism Fellowship involves on-the-ground reporting of long-form and short-form articles, guidance on writing, research, and career development by Untapped New York staff and its advisory board, which includes award-winning journalists, authors, and media figures. One fellow will be selected at a time for a 6-month fellowship.

Structure

Fellows will meet 2 times a week throughout the 6-month program, once with Untapped New York founder Michelle Young, an author, journalist, and professor at Columbia University, and with managing editor Nicole Saraniero, on the development of assignments and once with the larger Untapped New York team.

Fellows will also meet once a month with a member of the advisory board, which includes journalist John Surico, author Laurie Gwen Shapiro, Madame Architect founder Julia Gamolina journalist Hannah Frishberg, preservationist and activist Simeon Bankoff, and artist Aaron Asis, to review fellow work and learn from their experiences.

Fellows will be required to produce one long-form article per week (1500+ words) and up to two short-form articles per week (400+ words).

Fellowships run from January 2-June 30, and July 1-December 31.

What We Offer

 Journalism Training

Career Development Guidance

 Published Work

Tech training on online tools, creative tools, and social media

Free Memberships and Events

Fellows will be offered a one-year complimentary subscription to the Untapped New York Member program at the Insider tier, with access to virtual and in-person tours and talks, as well as free access to public tours and events.

Stipend

Fellows will be awarded a stipend of $5,000 for the 6-month fellowship, to be paid monthly.

Application Requirements and Process

Fellowship applicants should be based in the New York Tri-state area and be able to do on-the-ground reporting in New York City. Travel expenses are not included, except on an assignment-specific basis. 

Prospective applicants should send the following to michelle@untappedcities.com:

• Cover letter (can be written in the email)
• Resume
• 5 long-form articles (links or attachments)
• At least 5 photography samples in a news-oriented, journalistic style (links or attachments)
• Additional writing samples (optional) 

Advisory Board

Aaron Asis was born and raised in New York City and spent his childhood exploring its neighborhoods, its people, and its streets. As an artist, Aaron draws from a lifetime of exploration to promote access, increase awareness, and encourage curiosity throughout our cities.  His work is fully collaborative and always public — working with community groups, non-profit organizations, and government agencies to connect people with the environments we all live in and accentuate overlooked aspects of our everyday lives—through the creation of site-specific installations, multi-disciplinary events, and documentary-style films.  

Simeon Bankoff is a consultant specializing in historic preservation concerns, community organizing and organizational strategies. He has been active in numerous community-based preservation activities in New York City and beyond. His clients have included the Campaign for a Livable City, Save Harlem Now!, the Center at West Park, Carnegie Hill Neighbors, the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, the View Carre Property Owners and Residents Association among others. Mr. Bankoff previously served as the Executive Director of the Historic Districts Council (HDC), the citywide advocate for New York's historic neighborhoods from 2000 through 2021. Under his leadership, HDC became one of New York's most prominent voices for historic preservation with a special focus on grassroots community-based preservation efforts. In addition to public advocacy, the organization also pursued a strong public education program, hosting more than four dozen public programs annually focusing on historic preservation, neighborhood development concerns and NYC history. During his service at the organization, Mr. Bankoff tripled the budget and full-time staff and raised an endowment of $2 million.

Mr. Bankoff has more than 25 years of experience with preservation non-profits in New York, having worked in programming, development and property acquisition with the Historic House Trust, the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center and the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation. He has lectured at Columbia University, Fashion Institute of Technology, Hunter College, New York University, Pratt Institute and Sarah Lawrence College, has participated in cultural exchange programs concerning urban preservation with groups from Europe, Eastern Europe and Japan and wrote a featured column for The New York Times. He has received awards for his work from the American Friends of the Georgian Group and the Guides Association of New York City. He currently serves as the President of the Fine Arts Federation of New York, a 130-year-old alliance of associations dedicated to advocating for design excellence in public design. A lifelong resident of Brooklyn, Mr. Bankoff holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and a M.S. in Historic Preservation from Pratt Institute.

Julia Gamolina is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Madame Architect, a digital magazine focused on the extraordinary women that shape our world for the better. Trained as an architect herself and with over a decade of experience across all aspects of design, business development, and communications, Julia is also an Associate Principal at Ennead Architects and teaches graduate professional practice and media courses at Pratt Institute. In 2024, Madame Architect received the AIANY Architecture in Media Award. In 2024 and 2023, Julia was listed in Wallpaper*'s Creative America, a list of the people defining the creative landscape in the US. Her writing has been featured in A Women's Thing, Fast Company, Metropolis Magazine, and the Architect's Newspaper. She was born in Novosibirsk, later immigrated to Toronto and then to Colorado Springs, and is based in New York City, having also lived and worked in Austria, Italy, France and Brazil.

Hannah Frishberg is a Culture & Arts Reporter at WNYC/Gothamist. Previously she was a columnist at Curbed, the editor of the Bensonhurst Bean, a staff writer at Brownstoner and a Features Writer at The New York Post, where her work served as the basis for Discovery+'s 2022 docuseries "Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed." She is co-author of the 2023 guidebook "Secret New York" and her words and photos have also appeared in The New York Times, Gothamist, and Rizzoli's "Brooklyn Photographs Now" among other publications. A fourth-generation Brooklynite, Hannah got her start in journalism back in high school, producing photo essays for Atlas Obscura.

Laurie Gwen Shapiro is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker with bylines in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Los Angeles Review of Books. Her bestselling debut, The Stowaway (Simon & Schuster), was an Indie Next selection. Her upcoming nonfiction book, The Aviator & The Showman (Viking, 2025), delves into the life of Amelia Earhart. Shapiro also serves as an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

John Surico is a journalist and researcher who focuses on cities and how they're changing. His reporting can be found in The New York Times, Bloomberg, New York Magazine, and elsewhere. He teaches urbanism-focused reporting at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and serves as the Senior Fellow for Climate and Opportunity at the Center for an Urban Future. He is the co-author of a forthcoming book about Tactical Urbanism with Mike Lydon and Tony Garcia of Street Plans. He's based in Queens, New York, where he helps to organize the 31st Ave Open Street, a pop-up public space on weekends.

Michelle Young is an award-winning journalist, author, professor, and founder of Untapped New York. She is the author of the forthcoming narrative non-fiction book The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland from HarperOne, Secret Brooklyn, Secret New York, and Broadway. Her writing and photography has appeared in Narratively, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Hyperallergic, The Forward, Metropolis Magazine and The Wilson Quarterly.  a Professor of Architecture at Columbia University. Michelle appears regularly in documentaries by Netflix, National Geographic, The History Channel, Smithsonian, PBS and more.