The application deadlines for international applicants to the 2010-2011 Nieman Fellowships at Harvard University and the Knight Fellowships at Stanford University are Dec. 15, 2009. (U.S. applicants have later deadlines.) Both programs are open to professional journalists from Latin American and the Caribbean.

Those selected and their families will be supported for a year while the fellows study, research, and attend exclusive seminars and workshops at the universities. This term’s Nieman Fellows included two journalists from Latin America, both studying the effects of new media.

The current Knight Fellows from Latin America are studying diverse topics like how to integrate mobile, web, and radio to improve coverage and how journalists transition from crisis coverage to “everyday” news in post-conflict countries.

Rosental Alves, director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and a Nieman alumnus, offers advice for applicants to both programs in this post.