{"id":24089,"date":"2026-05-13T17:31:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T21:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/?p=24089"},"modified":"2026-05-13T17:31:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T21:31:06","slug":"journalism-students-head-to-africa-on-life-changing-media-internships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/2026\/journalism-students-head-to-africa-on-life-changing-media-internships\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalism students head to Africa on “life-changing” media internships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight Carleton journalism students are gearing up to head to Africa on media internships this spring and summer.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s iteration of the longstanding Global Journalism Internship program will see students from Carleton\u2019s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The interns will collaborate with local partners to produce the next season of the Nature Answers<\/a> 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Journalism

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.<\/p><\/div>\n

Carleton\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese internships provide life-changing experiential learning opportunities for our students,\u201d said Allan Thompson, the founder of the internship program and currently the head of Carleton\u2019s journalism program. \u201cOver two decades, I have been determined to keep these internships going because of the remarkable life experience they offer for our students,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n

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Carleton intern Madison Eldridge, on the ground last year in Uganda.<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Carleton intern Abyssinia Abebe on the ground last year in Cote d’Ivoire.<\/p><\/div>\n

But even after the Rwanda partnership wound down, the internships continued, in partnership with several other organizations across Africa, including Farm Radio International.<\/p>\n

For the last four years, Farm Radio\u2019s work on the\u00a0On Air<\/a>\u00a0project has been the primary focus of the Carleton internships, producing the\u00a0Nature Answers\u00a0<\/em>podcast that\u00a0shares 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.<\/p>\n

You can\u00a0listen here to some of the podcast episodes<\/a>\u00a0from Season 4 of\u00a0Nature Answers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Carleton interns include:<\/p>\n