Newsroom/Programs & exchange·December 24, 2019·2 min read

RIAS concludes successful 2019 with 6 programs, 92 participants, & rising donations

Ten American journalists visited Berlin, Erfurt, Cologne and Brussels on the September 2019 program to Europe.

It was a successful year in 2019 for the RIAS Berlin Commission with 92 participants taking part in six transatlantic exchange programs and more than a dozen alumni events with hundreds of participants taking place in the United States and Germany. That was up from 78 participants on six programs in 2018. The largest RIAS program ever took place in November with 30 U.S. alumni on a week-long program in Berlin and to report on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. There will be a similarly large RIAS alumni program in Washington in late October 2020 just before the U.S. elections.

Twelve German journalists spent three weeks in the USA in October 2019 – and had a meeting with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy.

More than 60 RIAS Berlin Commission alumni answered the call to help support our exchange programs through this prolonged low-interest phase that has made it challenging for the RIAS Berlin Commission. Donations from alumni and friends of RIAS in Germany and the United States in 2019 exceeded $13,000, which represents about a 50-percent increase from 2018. Those donations will make it possible to take three more journalists than planned on the RIAS standard exchange programs to the United States and Germany in 2020 so thanks for your support!

Thanks to an ERP grant from the German government, RIAS Berlin Commission has created a new program in 2020 for 15 German journalism students to spend three weeks in the United States in late March and early April to learn more about journalism education and college life in the United States. They will spend a total of one week in Washington DC and New York together before flying to 12 different U.S. universities across the country where they will spend two weeks.

RIAS journalists visit new CNN offices in New York and meet CNN diplomatic correspondent Richard Roth

RIAS Berlin Commission’s goals for 2020 are to try to find new and creative ways to counter the impact of the prolonged low-interest rate phase, create high-caliber programs for high-caliber participating journalists, ensure geographic diversity from across the United States and Germany, ensure diversity in all our groups, and encourage the growth of autonomous alumni chapters. Thanks for all your support!

More stories