Pushing Boundaries launched in 2022. The project centers on a coming student news-publishing project that will act as a proving ground, where participants explore cutting-edge thinking and research about the trajectory of journalism and public-interest communication. Pushing Boundaries participants will study the ways new opportunities and challenges and new platforms and genres influence public-interest storytelling. The best trained future journalists must be grounded in journalism ethics, the practice of verification, and the art of storytelling adaptability. They also must be watchful champions of democracy, which they will be, because young people trained in journalism are also highly likely to be among the most engaged citizens for life.

CJMD fellows working on the Pushing Boundaries initiative now are investigating mission-adjacent projects. They’re also laying groundwork to train and run a network of student journalists on the environmental beat—student journalists who are longtime residents of environmental and climate “hot spot” communities across Washington state and who will rely on local sources to tell stories with their communities about their communities.