SAC Receives Grant to Expand Hands-On Journalism Opportunities
October 8, 2026
San Antonio College’s journalism program was awarded a $15,000 grant that will create new opportunities for journalism students to gain professional experience while contributing to local news coverage across San Antonio.
SAC is one of four colleges selected to receive a 2026–27 Community College Experiential Journalism Grant from the Scripps Howard Fund and the Journalism + Design Lab at The New School. The grant aims to strengthen community-based journalism programs and expand experiential learning for students.
With the funding, SAC Journalism Instructor Ethan E. Rocke and Journalism Discipline Coordinator Dr. Pedro Cabrera will establish the San Antonio Community Journalism Cooperative. The initiative will bring together students, faculty, local journalists, news organizations, nonprofits and community partners to strengthen connections between journalism education and San Antonio’s local news ecosystem.
“We are very excited and honored to receive this award, which will allow us to expand and fortify newsroom partnerships that provide invaluable experiential-learning opportunities through funded fellowships for advanced journalism students,” Rocke said. “The goal is to place advanced student journalists in local newsrooms to produce work that expands reporting capacity across San Antonio’s news ecosystem.”
At the center of the initiative is a question posed by SAC faculty during its development: How can San Antonio College help San Antonio produce more journalism?
Through partnerships with local media organizations, students will have opportunities to take their journalism education beyond the classroom through paid fellowships, collaborative reporting projects, mentorships, and other professional experiences. Students will work alongside professional journalists while producing work for real audiences and building portfolios of published work.
The cooperative builds on SAC’s existing student media programs, including The Sundial, KSYM Radio and TVSA, where students develop skills in reporting, photography, audio, video and multimedia storytelling.
For Rocke, the initiative also carries forward a journalism tradition at SAC that dates back generations.
“Our journalism faculty take a lot of pride in ‘punching above our weight class’ at SAC. Our program has a 100-year legacy of producing stellar, intrepid professional journalists, including at least two Pulitzer winners,” Rocke said. “This initiative supports our strategic vision of offering a best-in-class multimedia journalism program that honors and carries forward our proud legacy.”
The grant builds on SAC’s participation in the Journalism + Design Lab’s Community College Civic Info Challenge, an initiative focused on exploring how community colleges can support the flow of reliable local news and civic information.
SAC joins Florida State College at Jacksonville, Houston City College and Jones College in Mississippi as recipients of the 2026–27 grants. The colleges will participate in a collaborative cohort to share ideas, challenges and approaches to strengthening community-based journalism.
Through the San Antonio Community Journalism Cooperative, SAC will continue connecting journalism education with professional experience and community service, giving students opportunities to develop their skills in working newsrooms while contributing to journalism that serves San Antonio.
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