The Washington Post announced Jan. 30 it will sponsor and offer paid internships to select graduates of the program at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications that allows computer programmers to obtain a master’s degree in journalism, according to a University press release published Wednesday.

The program, which has been in effect since 2008 as a joint program grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, has sent nine computer science students to the Medill journalism master’s program, according to the release.

The Washington Post and the Knight Foundation will cover full tuition for the 12-month program for scholarship winners and guarantee them a paid internship at the Washington Post after graduation, the release said.

“I am very pleased that The Post is our first partner in this innovative program with Medill and Knight Foundation,” Medill Dean Brad Hamm said in the release. “We appreciate their entrepreneurial spirit, and we look forward to working with additional news organizations to join us in making this investment in the future of journalism.”

The Post will be the first media company to join the program. The Knight Foundation’s $639,000 grant has funded the scholarship program so far.

Students in the program can take classes in other Northwestern schools and work with the Watchdog/Accountability Initiative and the Knight Lab, an innovative technology lab run by Medill and the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, according to a post written by Medill Prof. Rich Gordon for the blog, Idea Lab, which is run by PBS.

According to the release, previous scholarship recipients include Shane Shifflett, data engineer at the Center for Investigative Reporting, Ryan Mark, digital product strategy director at the Chicago Tribune Media Group, Manya Gupta, a web technical editor for theworld.org, and Brian Boyer, the news applications director at National Public Radio.

— Ally Mutnick