Sports Journalism student works for local paper
Published 17 January 2012
You don’t necessarily have to work in a pub or supermarket to help pay your way through university. Sport Journalism student Maria Hudd is a shining example of the fruits of work experience, impressing the Eastbourne Herald & Gazette so much they offered her a part-time contract.
Links between the university and the local newspaper are well-established. The sports editor, Derren Howard, is an Sports Journalism graduate and a weekly work placement scheme for Year 2 students on the sports desk is now in its fourth year.
In being offered regular paid work outside the scheme, Maria is following in the footsteps of Henry Milward, an Sport Journalism student who graduated last year and contributed extensively to the Herald.
'The experience I'm getting there is invaluable,' enthuses Maria. 'It takes me out of my comfort zone by getting me to cover a wide variety of sports and I'm learning new things every day.
'It's given me a real flavour of what the industry is like and I can already see an improvement in my confidence and communication skills.'
Sports Journalism lecturer Rob Steen is delighted: 'At a time when unpaid internships are the subject, rightly, of such opprobrium, particularly because they limit opportunities among those in lower-income brackets, it's a tonic to discover that not every cash-strapped newspaper wants something for nothing. Maria richly deserves it.'
