The University of Central Florida's Nicholson School of Communication has been designated one of five regional Centers for Editing Excellence by the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund for 2005.

The Nicholson School will receive a grant of about $30,000 from the Newspaper Fund to train 11 top college journalists from around the country. Nicholson School faculty will prepare the students for 10-week, paid summer editing internships at daily newspapers, including six in Florida. The students will live and study on campus during the training program from May 15 to 27.

"Having this Dow Jones program at the Nicholson School acknowledges the depth of excellence in our faculty and puts our journalism program on the national map," said Mary Alice Shaver, director of the Nicholson School. "It shows we can compete among the elite journalism programs. We have faculty with significant professional experience and the facilities to offer hands-on learning."

The center will be directed by Nicholson School faculty members Rick Kenney and Rick Brunson. Other UCF Journalism Division faculty members, as well as editors from the St. Petersburg Times, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Los Angeles Times, will assist in the training.

Six of the 11 interns will complete their internships at Florida newspapers. Participating newspapers are the St. Petersburg Times, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, The Tampa Tribune, Palm Beach Post, The Ledger and Naples Daily News.

In winning the grant for the first time, UCF joins other Dow Jones Newspaper Fund regional training programs at the universities of Missouri and Texas and Temple and San Jose State universities. The universities of North Carolina and Nebraska and Penn State University offer specialized internship training programs through the Newspaper Fund.

The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund was founded in 1958 by editors of The Wall Street Journal to improve the quality of journalism education and the pool of applications for jobs in the newspaper business. The fund is a nonprofit foundation supported by the Dow Jones Foundation, Dow Jones & Co., Inc. and other newspaper companies.