Youngblood Investigative Fellowship offers students chance to work on long-term investigative projects
COLUMBIA, Mo. (April 6, 2026) — Applications for the Missouri School of Journalism’s new Robert F. Youngblood Investigative Fellowship close this Friday, April 10. The fellowship will give one student the opportunity to work on various investigative and data-driven reporting projects with the School’s Missouri News Network of professional newsrooms.
The annual, nine-month fellowship is open to graduate students as well as juniors and seniors focused on data journalism and investigative reporting. Named for international journalist Robert F. Youngblood, MA ’15, who returned to school in his fifties to earn a master’s degree from the School of Journalism, the program was endowed by a gift from his wife, Ursula Liu. Youngblood died in 2016.
“This fellowship will help students expand their Missouri Method experience by getting hands-on with investigative journalism across different mediums,” said David Kurpius, dean of the School of Journalism. “I’m grateful to Robert Youngblood’s family for helping the School offer students even more ways to serve the community while learning by doing.”
The recipient will be paired with a faculty mentor to work on long-term projects that are otherwise difficult to fit into course schedules, given that investigative journalism often demands research and analysis of data, trends and voluminous background information as part of the reporting process.
“To create a story that really has impact, it can take a long time. You have to have time and space to really focus on doing all the legwork. To learn that skill of how to keep a project moving and hit deadlines is something that will serve any student who wants to do this kind of work in a newsroom.”
Elizabeth Lucas, Houston Harte Chair in Journalism, Missouri School of Journalism
“To create a story that really has impact, it can take a long time,” said Elizabeth Lucas, the Houston Harte Chair in Journalism at the School. “You have to have time and space to really focus on doing all the legwork. And there’s something really valuable about learning the pacing of a long-term project because whether you’re a student or a reporter in a newsroom, inevitably you have other things going on that you have to attend to. To learn that skill of how to keep a project moving and hit deadlines is something that will serve any student who wants to do this kind of work in a newsroom.”
Lucas added that a key feature of the fellowship is the ability to integrate investigative reporting into multiple outlets across multiple platforms.
Students will do just that by leveraging the Missouri News Network, which consists of NBC-affiliate KOMU-TV, NPR-member station KBIA-FM, community newspaper the Columbia Missourian, community business news site Missouri Business Alert and culture magazine Vox.
“More and more journalists need to be able to think in terms of print, digital, video and audio,” she said. “A real point of interest is to think about how we can take this investigative work and make it accessible on all the platforms, both to amplify the reach of the story and to give the student the experience of working in those mediums.”
About the Houston Harte Chair in Journalism
The family of Houston Harte, BJ ’15, co-founder of the Harte-Hanks newspaper group, established the Houston Harte Chair in Journalism. Harte bought his first newspaper while still a student at the Missouri School of Journalism. At his death, he was chairman of the executive committee of Harte-Hanks Newspapers, Inc., which owned 19 newspapers and one television station. The Houston Harte Chair shares expertise through classroom teaching, industry outreach, and by working with students and professionals in the school’s Missouri News Network of professional news outlets.
Updated: April 7, 2026