JMSC Internships Lead to Published Work

Over the winter break, more than 50 students from the JMSC completed internships in media organisations in Hong Kong, China and round the Asia Pacific Region.

Companies taking JMSC students included Time Out HK, the South China Morning Post, China Daily, Al Jazeera, the International Herald Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, SunTV, BBC, CNN, ABC, The New York Times, the Times of India, the Phnom Penh Post, the Jakarta Globe, USA Today, Malaysiakini and more.

For some students the internships provided more than just work experience, they were provided with a chance to see their work published.

Michelle Yun (MJ 2011)

Michelle Yun (MJ 2011) completed a three month internship at the American national daily newspaper, USA Today. Working alongside the paper’s Hong Kong correspondent, Yun contributed to a number of stories.

She got two co-bylines and also had two cover stories printed in both the national and international versions of the newspaper.

“My first byline was a short piece on the arrival of hairy crab season which ran in the paper’s Life section,” said Yun.

“The first cover story I worked on was about factory workers in China becoming more aware of their rights and pushing for improvements in wages and conditions. For this story, we started off by compiling and approaching companies that manufacture in China, many of them Hong Kong or Taiwan-based.

“One of the most fascinating parts of reporting for this story was a visit I made to a factory in Dongguan that manufactured dress-shirts and pants for big U.S. and international brands.

“We also made another trip to China to meet a young factory worker with whom I’d been talking on the phone. It makes a world of a difference to be at the scene of what you’re reporting about.

“Having worked on two big cover stories, I’m much more confident as a journalist now,” Yun continued. “Also, working one-on-one with a veteran reporter meant I had a lot of guidance. Actually, I learned the most just by observing her work habits and conduct.”

Andrea Yu (MJ 2011)

Andrea Yu (MJ 2011) interned at the Hong Kong office of the mainland Chinese, state-run, daily English language newspaper, the China Daily, in the City News section for the month of December.

Yu wrote two feature stories for the paper. The first story, called Coming Back Home, is about children of Hong Kong emigrants who were born in the West but returned to the city to work and contribute to society here.

The second, called A Rude Awakening, was about the difficulties of teaching sex education in mainland schools, and the problems of not teaching it properly.

“One of the most valuable experiences I had was participating in weekly meetings with the other city news reporters to share ideas for current and future feature stories,” said Yu. “It was great to have a glimpse into the process of how reporters develop their story ideas.”

Nicole Xu Ke (MJ 2011)

Nicole Xu Ke (MJ 2011) is in the second month of a six month internship at the Wall Street Journal Asia. WSJ.com published one of Xu’s stories about how the increase in salaries in Hong Kong is predicted to be less than inflation. You can read her story here.

“It is actually the first time for me to have a published article with my name in the byline in the WSJ, which made me excited,” said Xu.

“It is also my first time working in one of the most prestigious news organisations in the world. I feel proud to have had my own news story published in the WSJ, as I was told more than once that non-native speakers could hardly ever get a position other than a news assistant in most of the English-language media.

“I am hugely grateful to Gene Mustain, my reporting and writing supervisor, and Doreen Weisenhaus, for providing kind help during my internship.”

Heidi Yeung (MJ 2011)

Heidi Yeung (MJ 2011) worked in the lifestyle section of the Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia’s leading daily English-language newspaper, during her winter internship. Her first story in print was a review of the Meric restaurant in Phnom Penh.

Yeung’s second story was a heart-warming tale about landmine survivor, Choun Anny, a 28 year-old athlete who competed on behalf of Cambodia in the first Asian Para Games and is training to run in an international competition in Indonesia later this year.

“My three-week internship at the Phnom Penh Post taught me to be very flexible in how I handled situations, and I was incredibly appreciative of any opportunity or idea that came my way,” said Yeung.

“It was a fun challenge, and very exciting to see my work printed in a foreign publication. One of them was even in both the Khmer and English editions of the paper!”

Other stories written by JMSC students that have been published during internships include several of Konstantin Riffler’s (MJ 2011) pieces written for the Financial Times site Ignites Asia, which is an online news source specifically for asset management industry professionals working in the Asian market.

Shari Nijman (MJ 2011) interned in Indonesia at the country’s English-language newspaper Jakarta Globe. The paper published her story on how Indonesia is struggling to maintain its biodiversity.

Jennifer Jett (MJ 2011), also interning at the Jakarta Globe, wrote several stories that were published during her internship. Jett covered subjects as diverse as nuclear power in Indonesia to a local Santa conference.

Holden Mann (MJ 2011) interned at Time Out Hong Kong where he wrote a piece entitled The Great Migration about birdwatching at the Wetland Park in Tin Shui Wai, Hong Kong. Natalie Deng (MJ 2011) wrote a piece for CNNgo about the best places to find claypot rice dishes in Hong Kong.

Andrew Willis (MJ 2011) also wrote a piece for CNNgo about a yoga-pose-inspired swimsuit calendar.

Two MJ students, Eldes Tran and Vanessa Ko, helped write three stories for the South China Morning Post about Hong Kong’s gender gap in politics and business. Read one of the stories here.

Grace Lee (MJ 2011) interned at the BBC’s Chinese Bureau in Hong Kong. Lee published 21 news stories and complied six news briefs — in Chinese — during her internship. Among her published articles were one about battery factory pollution causing lead poisoning in children and another about the death toll rising Brazil after the recent flood.

If you are a student who has had a story published or broadcast during your internship, please contact Angharad Law at angharad.law@gmail.com to be included in this article.