Eight Carleton journalism students are gearing up to head to Africa on media internships this spring and summer.
This year’s iteration of the longstanding Global Journalism Internship program will see students from Carleton’s Bachelor of Journalism and Master of Journalism programs take up 8-12 week internships in Ghana, Uganda or Zambia with the Ottawa-based Canadian organization Farm Radio International.
The interns will collaborate with local partners to produce the next season of the Nature Answers podcast that showcases the nature-based solutions being practiced by African communities to counter climate change. The interns will also be sharing their experiences through blogs posted to the journalism program site AfricaDispatches.com.
Interns heading to Africa this year, front row L-R: Victoria Silva McGuire, Kyla Silva, Sarah Harb, Georgia Looman and Stefanja Ottier. Back row L-R Ben Jorgenson, Dan Arnold and Matheus Modesto-Nelson.
Carleton’s Global Journalism Internships unfolding this year are the continuation of a program that has been in operation since 2006 and has sent more than 300 Carleton journalism students to the Global South on media internships.
“These internships provide life-changing experiential learning opportunities for our students,” said Allan Thompson, the founder of the internship program and currently the head of Carleton’s journalism program. “Over two decades, I have been determined to keep these internships going because of the remarkable life experience they offer for our students,” Thompson said.
Carleton intern Madison Eldridge, on the ground last year in Uganda.
Working with Farm Radio partners on the ground, the Carleton interns will identify and plan for podcast episodes and undertake field travel to rural communities to record video, audio and photographs, with a focus on audio. In the end, they will work on the editing and production of podcast episodes, as well as video and written stories.
The Carleton internships were originally an offshoot of the partnership Carleton forged in 2006 with the journalism school at the National University of Rwanda, the Rwanda Initiative project that operated from 2006 to 2012, fostering journalism education and independent media in post-genocide Rwanda. Over the first few years of the program, all the Carleton interns took up placements with Rwandan media outlets.
Carleton intern Abyssinia Abebe on the ground last year in Cote d’Ivoire.
But even after the Rwanda partnership wound down, the internships continued, in partnership with several other organizations across Africa, including Farm Radio International.
For the last four years, Farm Radio’s work on the On Air project has been the primary focus of the Carleton internships, producing the Nature Answers podcast that shares stories from rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa, where some of the most vulnerable people on earth are turning to nature for solutions to a changing climate.
You can listen here to some of the podcast episodes from Season 4 of Nature Answers.
This year’s Carleton interns include:
- Dan Arnold has just completed the third year of Carleton’s four-year Bachelor of Journalism program and is taking up an internship in Ghana.
- Sarah Harb just completed the first year of Carleton’s Master of Journalism program and will be travelling to Uganda.
- Ben Jorgenson also just completed the first year of Carleton’s Master of Journalism program and will take up an internship in Ghana.
- Georgia Looman is heading into the fourth year of Carleton’s Bachelor of Journalism program and will travel to Ghana.
- Matheus Modesto-Nelson is heading into the fourth year of Carleton’s Bachelor of Journalism program and will be on internship in Zambia.
- Stefanja Ottier has just completed the second year of Carleton’s Bachelor of Journalism program and will take up an internship in Zambia.
- Victoria Silva McGuire has just completed the first year of Carleton’s Master of Journalism program and is headed to Uganda.
- Kyla Silva has just completed the third year of Carleton’s Bachelor of Journalism program and is taking up an internship in Zambia.
Farm Radio’s mandate since its creation in 1979 has been to use radio as a vehicle to achieve development goals and to explore how to get people to listen to useful programming that brings about change. Various Farm Radio projects over the years have focused on farming, gender equality, sexual health and mental health. The focus on radio as a medium has expanded to include another important media platform – the mobile phone.
The Carleton interns recently underwent a two-day pre-departure orientation exercise at Farm Radio, led by the organization’s communications manager Blair Amyotte.
“We’re very grateful for our continued partnership with Carleton’s journalism program,’’ Amyotte said. “Every year, we get an incredible group of candidates who are eager, professional and excited to learn and grow. I have great confidence that this group travelling to Zambia, Ghana and Uganda this summer as part of our Nature-based Solutions project with Global Affairs Canada, will amplify voices and stories from some incredible communities across the continent.”
Farm Radio’s On Air project is funded by Global Affairs Canada. The Carleton travel awards that help fund these internships are supported by the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Public and Global Affairs.
Wednesday, May 13, 2026 in General, Journalism News, News
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