Elephant Academy

Will I get to work with Elephant staff? Who is actually training me?

You will be working with the crème de la crème of Elephant Journal: Waylon Lewis, our Editor-in-Chief, will lead the weekly meetings. The Academy team are all fully-trained Elephant editors and social media masters, and the Editorial team who provide personal feedback on your writing have 20+ years of editing experience between them.

I have a full-time job, so most of this course work would need to be done in the evening and weekends. Does that work for this program?

Full participation in the course requires about 20 hours a week, and there is often a learning curve for the first week or two that may require some additional time and patience. However, the majority of our Apprentices participate in this course while holding down a full-time job—the community & support of your peers and the Elephant team help!

Do you offer scholarships?

Thanks to generous donations from Academy alumni and fellow mindful lifers, we are able to offer a limited number of need-based scholarships for the Academy. You can apply for a scholarship here. We'll ask you for a writing sample, why you're applying for a scholarship, and want to hear more about how joining the Academy will be of benefit to yourself and our world, both.

Scholarships are only applicable to the full tuition price, and we do not offer scholarships for our Auditing program. Questions? Send us an email.

Do I need expertise in journalism to be a part of the program?

Oh hell no.

I have no idea how to run a Facebook page for a business, should I still apply?

Neither did Elephant, in 2009. Sometimes we still don’t, in 2018—things change every other month. That said, we’ve built up over 60 Facebook pages, with 5 million fans. We'll teach you what we’ve learned, and are still learning every day, about using Facebook (and other social media) to cultivate your business with mindfulness, intention, and authenticity. No experience needed.

You say “run a social media page” with Elephant Journal. Can you explain specifically what this means? Can we create an Instagram or Facebook from scratch or will they all be preexisting?

If you choose to participate, you will be running one of Elephant Journal’s actual Facebook pages—that means you will have a direct impact on our business, engage directly with our readers, be responsible for curating content. Kind of a big deal, right? That’s because we firmly believe the best way to learn is first-hand. You’ll learn how to share content, create community, and build reach on the page, which are directly transferable to your own personal or business pages.

If you choose not to participate in the challenge, you still get all the video and written training we offer, plus you’ll be a part of the weekly meetings where we discuss the techniques in depth.

Who are the Teaching Assistants inside the Academy and what are the small groups?

Teaching Assistants are Academy graduates who have decided we just might be cool enough to hang around with a little longer. They are trained in the field, can help you navigate the ins and outs of the Academy, and they are one of the kindest and most mission-oriented crews you’ll ever meet. Each TA holds a weekly small group meeting to provide additional guidance and support for you; we usually have five to seven choices to pick between, and you will have the opportunity to choose one meeting time that works best for you.

What are my chances of being hired by Elephant after this Apprenticeship?

Apprenticing with us doesn’t guarantee you a job, but it can get you noticed. When we do have open positions, we look to Academy alumni first.

I want to do the Academy to improve my writing, do I have to do all the other stuff? Also, I’m kind of nervous about writing, does it matter that I’m inexperienced? Also, I just love words, and want to hear your general thoughts on that.

Great news: we love words too, and there are few things we enjoy more than helping writers find their voice and hone their skills. While we do value a grammatically correct sentence (a lot), we also have Apprentices join us from all over the world, and whose most poetic compositions are their Sunday grocery lists (which, by the way, can be extremely poetic). All we ask is that you have a willingness to learn, an openness to constructive feedback, and a dedication to improving your craft.

Oh, and about all that other stuff—we have designed this program so that each section builds on the others. The things you learn about writing a personal introduction on Facebook will be directly relevant to how you identify fake news, and insight on how to ethically and interestingly write a news story will inform how you construct a personal essay, and then share it to your friends and family on social media. See how that came full circle?

Will the blogging and Facebooking I learn here apply to other websites as well, or just Elephant?

We will teach you Elephant-specific editing guidelines and social media practices, but they will absolutely be relevant beyond the Academy. How to find your voice, how to help a writer find their voice, and how to connect with your readers are universal skills—you may even find they extend beyond your writing and publishing goals.

What forms of payment do you accept?

We accept payments from Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. For additional information regarding payment, please take a gander at our program Terms and Conditions.

Do you have more questions?

Contact the Academy team.

Frequently Asked Questions!