Three Carleton journalism students will be in Japan this summer on an exciting adventure to work as interns at the Expo 2025 world exhibition, being held in Osaka.
In a unique new addition to Carleton’s internship offerings for journalism students, each of the three students will spend eight weeks or more reporting on Expo, with a focus on Canada’s presence at the major international exposition. The student work will be featured on a dedicated page at Capital Current, the flagship digital news publication of Carleton’s journalism program. The interns will also have the chance to freelance their work.
“The chance to send Carleton journalism students to cover Expo just seemed too good to pass up,” said Allan Thompson, Director of Carleton’s School of Journalism and Communication and the organizer of the internship program. Thompson visited the Expo site in Japan this February to meet with members of the Canadian delegation and the Expo media team to set up the internships. The program is supported by funding from Carleton’s Faculty of Public and Global Affairs, the Office of the Vice-President Research and International and the journalism program’s Kesterton Endowment.
More than 28 million visitors are expected at the Expo, which showcases more than 150 countries and international organizations. Expo officially opened on April 13 and runs through October 13. Canada famously hosted Expo 67 in Montreal, an event that thrust Canada onto the world stage during its Centennial year.
The Expo world exhibitions, which normally take place every five years, are probably second only to the Olympics as an international gathering that puts aside politics and conflict to celebrate our planet and the way forward.
“On behalf of the Canada Pavilion Team at Expo 2025 Osaka, I am delighted to welcome these talented students to Osaka to offer their ‘take’ and perspective on this 6-month gathering,” said Laurie Peters, Canada’s Commissioner General at Expo 2025. “Empowering and engaging youth has always been central to Canada’s participation at World Expos and we look forward to the many global connections and stories that they will generate during their internship.”
This year’s Expo interns from Carleton include journalism students Poppy Philbrook and Sean Coombs as well as Alyssa Johnston, from the journalism program’s Media Production and Design degree stream.
All three have links to Japan and the fact that they speak fluent Japanese was a major factor in their selection for the program.
Carleton intern Poppy Philbrook
“I look forward not only to getting to head back to my home away from home but getting to explore journalism in a place that has shaped who I am,” said Philbrook, who arrived in Japan this week. Poppy lived in Japan for five years after the family moved to Tokyo in 2016. Philbrook learned Japanese over those five years and continued to practise the language after moving back home to Vancouver in 2021.
Philbrook just completed the first year of Carleton’s journalism program and has focused on arts and culture, after serving as the senior editor for their high school’s arts magazine.
“I hope to gain more experience in journalistic forms beyond writing, such as audio and video,” Philbrook said. “I’m also looking forward to gaining experience working in an international setting and getting to cover many stories with diverse perspectives and experiences.”
Carleton intern Sean Coombs
Coombs, who graduates from Carleton’s Bachelor of Journalism program this spring, describes himself as a mixed-race Canadian with deep ties to Japan through his Japanese mother. He visits Japan every year to see his grandfather and extended family and will arrive in late June to take up the internship.
“From my mother teaching me Japanese to doing cultural exchanges in public school, Japanese culture was embedded in my childhood,” Coombs said. “I hope to translate my passion into my reporting for this Expo. Canada and Japan have more in common than one might think, and the unique history that binds these two countries together will be the basis for my reporting.”
Coombs served as an opinion writer and a board of directors member for Carleton’s campus newspaper, The Charlatan and has also contributed to other media outlets, including CBC Ottawa, CPAC, and MAX Ottawa.
Carleton intern Alyssa Johnston
Johnston is about to graduate from the Media Production and Design program at Carleton and also has mixed Japanese-Canadian heritage. She was born and raised in Japan and came to Canada in 2021 for university. “My dream was to work to connect people from Canada and Japan, exchanging the beautiful culture of both countries. I am very excited to be back home in Japan and report on the exciting stories of the Canadian Pavilion and the Osaka Expo.”
Johnston is passionate about storytelling and finding stories that resonate with and inspire people. She has created multimedia websites in collaboration with such partners as the NAC and the Mary Ann Shadd Cary Centre to tell a visually appealing and engaging story. She will take up her internship in late August and stay through the end of Expo, in mid-October.
An artist’s rendering of the spectacular Expo site in Osaka.
The interns will be spending their time at one of the most spectacular new sites on the planet. You reach the Expo site via Osaka’s impressive subway system. A brand new metro stop, Yumeshima, deposits passengers right at the east gate of the sprawling Expo site, which protrudes out into the Seto inland sea.
On arrival, you immediately come upon the centrepiece of the Expo site, the so-called Grand Ring, touted as the largest wooden structure in the world. Picture a gigantic Roman coliseum, but made of foot-square wooden beams, all interwoven in the style of ancient Japanese temples. The Grand Ring has a circumference of about two kilometres, enclosing a building site of 60,000 square metres. The inner circle contains the national pavilions of the countries that will be represented here. Atop the grand ring there is a sweeping walkway that takes you around the circumference of the site, providing spectacular views of Expo.
The Expo theme is “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”. A focus for Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai is global collaboration and progress in the context of fulfilling the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The defining feature of the Expo site is the “grand ring,” the largest wooden structure in the world.
The Canada Pavilion, the design of which was led by Rayside Labossière architects and architect Guillaume Pelletier, embraces the natural cycles of the country’s four seasons. The pavilion’s exterior architecture was inspired by springtime ice formations and the inside features a dynamic public presentation inviting visitors to follow a river’s journey across the country.
The Canada Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka showcases six months of collaborations and dynamic cultural performances in collaboration with key Canadian, Japanese and international partners. In particular, Canada’s creativity will be in the spotlight through an enticing cultural and performing arts program presented by Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC). Signature events will take place at the Canada Pavilion and across the Expo site. The Pavilion’s cultural programming is designed to captivate and inspire global audiences, facilitating dialogue and deepening international connections.
Canada’s participation at Expo 2025 Osaka is seen as an opportunity to celebrate the close ties between Canada and Japan, as well as deliver on Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy. A hallmark of Canada’s participation at Expos has always been its vibrant cultural programming. Canada’s National Arts Centre is curating a six-month line-up presenting a broad spectrum of Canadian performing arts for the Canada Pavilion stage and for stages across the Expo site.
And Carleton’s journalism interns will be there to capture it all and share those stories with the world.
Wednesday, May 28, 2025 in General, Journalism News, News
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