Two Charles Sturt University (CSU) third-year journalism students have been awarded prestigious traineeships with Fairfax Media publications The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun Herald.The traineeships were awarded to Ms Amy McNeilage and Mr Dominic Bossi from the CSU School of Communication and Creative Industries in Bathurst.
CSU journalism lecturer Mr Chris McGillion praised the students’ achievement, saying, “For Amy and Dom to gain two of the five positions on offer, from the hundreds of applications from around Australia, is quite an achievement for them, for the School, and Charles Sturt University.
“It is extremely unusual for final-year journalism students to gain traineeships with Fairfax Media, as the organisation rarely takes new graduates for its traineeship program, and usually prefers people who have three to five years experience in journalism.
“Both students have all the attributes to make them great journalists. They were both self-starters who took advantage of every opportunity available to them to develop their professional skills.”
Mr McGillion described the application and selection process as long and arduous. The formal applications were whittled to a shortlist of applicants who are invited to sit a test. From this, selected applicants were progressively culled through three successive rounds of interviews, until five applicants remained and were offered the traineeships.
Ms McNeilage, who will be working at the Sydney Morning Herald, said, “I am absolutely over the moon. I came to Charles Sturt University to study journalism with the intention of scoring a gig like this upon graduation and I couldn't be happier. I probably couldn't have found a more ideal starting point to establish myself in the industry. This gets my foot in the door, while giving me the opportunity to learn alongside the best journalists in the country. My main interest is politics, and I'll need a few more years experience before getting a ticket to Canberra, but that is my goal.”
“I've been a football (soccer) tragic since I was a young kid, and when I realised that a professional playing career was out of my reach, a career in sports media became my focus. During the traineeship I will be spending most of my time working as a sports journalist, however I will also be given the opportunity to work across other sectors, as well as undertaking further training. Due to the nature of the workload as a sports journalist, where games take place generally from Friday to Monday nights, I will be working across both the Sun Herald as well as the Sydney Morning Herald.”
Social
Explore the world of social