A final-year Charles Sturt University (CSU) student has beaten a field of top applicants from around Australia to gain the position of sole journalist at The Blayney Chronicle newspaper in the NSW Central West. Ms Clare Colley, a fourth generation Bathurst resident, has trumped her fellow students by being appointed a graded journalist with the Rural Press media organisation while completing the last semester of a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) at the School of Communication  at CSU at Bathurst. “This is a fantastic position,” Ms Colley said. “On the one hand, I was surprised to get the job, but on the other hand, I feel completely prepared for it because the journalism course is brilliant, broad, practical, and not just theory. My role at The Blayney Chronicle satisfies the course’s work-experience criteria, so, happily, I’m being paid as a journalist before I even graduate. You can’t beat that for job-ready training.”