Report For America: Nellie Bowles updates status of nonprofit Report For America, aiming to put a thousand journalists in understaffed newsrooms by 2022.

Applicants “want to try to save democracy,” says a founder. Fellowships last one to two years and pay about $40,000.

“I felt like I needed to give something back to a place that has given a lot to me,” says one of the first reporters selected. “And journalism is the way for me to do that.”