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Tribune News Network
Doha
The global pandemic COVID-19 has not stopped Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) students from completing internships as part of their undergraduate academic
programme.
The Journalism and Strategic Communication Residency programme – a requirement for a journalism degree from Northwestern’s Medill School – offers students real-world experience working for international news media and strategic communications organisations.
“Northwestern’s residency programme helps our students begin the transition from being a student to working as professionals in media and strategic communications,” said NU-Q Dean Craig LaMay. “This year, that experience means that our students are now working – alongside other professionals – remotely from their homes.”
For students Saad Ejaz, Inaara Gangji, Hanmin Kim and Amadou Jallow, this has meant leaving New York and Washington, to go back to their homes in Pakistan, Tanzania, South Korea and the Gambia, where they are continuing to write for top-ranked media outlets including The Guardian, USA Today, Voice of America and Widmeyer Communications. Other students, including Shafaq Zia and Manan Bhavnani, remain in Boston and Washington, where they are working remotely with STAT and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
A handful of other students who were interning as multimedia and video content producers have returned home where they have taken on new internship opportunities with media organisations in their country.
“I am so proud of how well our students have handled their residencies and the transition to remote work,” said Mary Dedinsky, professor and director of the Journalism and Strategic Communication Programme.
Zia is continuing to work with STAT, a media company that reports on health, medicine and scientific discovery, from her apartment in Boston. She has covered an array of scientific and health-focused topics that include immunotherapy, tips to protect the elderly in the time of coronavirus, and the relationship between ER visits and vocabulary on Facebook.
Zia said, “The number of new subscribers per week almost quadrupled in the last couple of weeks, which I attribute to the important need for trusted news and information on the virus – good and accurate journalism is extremely important today,” she said.
Ejaz is reporting for The Guardian’s New York City office from his home in Pakistan. During his time in New York, he researched and wrote articles for the publication’s ‘Fight to Vote’ series. “I’ve been given a lot of room to pitch my ideas and stories,” Ejaz said.
Gangji is interning with USA Today from her home in Tanzania. She reports to the digital content editor and researches and pitches ideas relating to crime and policing.
Gangji credits her liberal arts classes at NU-Q for having “taught me to challenge the status quo and think about things beyond just crime… One isolated incident has an impact on the larger society.”
Also adjusting to remote work from his home in South Korea is Kim, who is interning at Voice of America, which distributes news and information in over 40 languages to an estimated weekly global audience of 280 million people. He has covered the COVID-19 outbreak, creating 30 to 40-second videos about the coronavirus for distribution on VOA’s Instagram platform.
Jallow is interning at Widmeyer Communications, a New York-based public affairs firm, from his home in The Gambia. He has helped prepare two strategy documents dealing with improving educational performance.
Doha
The global pandemic COVID-19 has not stopped Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) students from completing internships as part of their undergraduate academic
programme.
The Journalism and Strategic Communication Residency programme – a requirement for a journalism degree from Northwestern’s Medill School – offers students real-world experience working for international news media and strategic communications organisations.
“Northwestern’s residency programme helps our students begin the transition from being a student to working as professionals in media and strategic communications,” said NU-Q Dean Craig LaMay. “This year, that experience means that our students are now working – alongside other professionals – remotely from their homes.”
For students Saad Ejaz, Inaara Gangji, Hanmin Kim and Amadou Jallow, this has meant leaving New York and Washington, to go back to their homes in Pakistan, Tanzania, South Korea and the Gambia, where they are continuing to write for top-ranked media outlets including The Guardian, USA Today, Voice of America and Widmeyer Communications. Other students, including Shafaq Zia and Manan Bhavnani, remain in Boston and Washington, where they are working remotely with STAT and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
A handful of other students who were interning as multimedia and video content producers have returned home where they have taken on new internship opportunities with media organisations in their country.
“I am so proud of how well our students have handled their residencies and the transition to remote work,” said Mary Dedinsky, professor and director of the Journalism and Strategic Communication Programme.
Zia is continuing to work with STAT, a media company that reports on health, medicine and scientific discovery, from her apartment in Boston. She has covered an array of scientific and health-focused topics that include immunotherapy, tips to protect the elderly in the time of coronavirus, and the relationship between ER visits and vocabulary on Facebook.
Zia said, “The number of new subscribers per week almost quadrupled in the last couple of weeks, which I attribute to the important need for trusted news and information on the virus – good and accurate journalism is extremely important today,” she said.
Ejaz is reporting for The Guardian’s New York City office from his home in Pakistan. During his time in New York, he researched and wrote articles for the publication’s ‘Fight to Vote’ series. “I’ve been given a lot of room to pitch my ideas and stories,” Ejaz said.
Gangji is interning with USA Today from her home in Tanzania. She reports to the digital content editor and researches and pitches ideas relating to crime and policing.
Gangji credits her liberal arts classes at NU-Q for having “taught me to challenge the status quo and think about things beyond just crime… One isolated incident has an impact on the larger society.”
Also adjusting to remote work from his home in South Korea is Kim, who is interning at Voice of America, which distributes news and information in over 40 languages to an estimated weekly global audience of 280 million people. He has covered the COVID-19 outbreak, creating 30 to 40-second videos about the coronavirus for distribution on VOA’s Instagram platform.
Jallow is interning at Widmeyer Communications, a New York-based public affairs firm, from his home in The Gambia. He has helped prepare two strategy documents dealing with improving educational performance.
