Chelsea Chan
10 July 2025
Jimin Lee
15 July 2025Denise Ramos
Aspiring Journalist Shares Insights on the BJ Programme, Internship, and Creating Flair Magazine
Q: What do you like the most about the BJ programme?
The classes are my favorite part of the BJ Programme. Nothing can top the feeling of stepping into a classroom with like-minded, journalistic people who are also diversely talented, and getting ready to learn together. The instructors made lessons more interactive as well — I got valuable hands-on experience with camerawork in my video news production class that I use every time I film.
Q: How was your internship experience at EmpowerU?
I had the opportunity to learn more about multimedia work in my internship at EmpowerU. I did poster designs, event photography, and video editing. EmpowerU also gave me creative freedom, leaving room for lots of trials and errors that eventually made me a more well-rounded journalism student.
Q: Any tips for prospective BJ students?
- Don’t be discouraged by rejection: I had lots of unanswered emails when finding interviewees for stories, but I always managed to get the work done by eventually finding others. Rejection is just redirection.
- Be over-prepared: Do extra research before starting a story/interview. It not only widens the field of information for you to work on, but it also shows the people involved how you care about the story.
Q: Tell us about Flair Magazine — what was the inspiration behind it?
This magazine is something that I had always wanted to do, and the JMSC Capstone Class was the push that I needed to get my vision out there.
Using our skills from reporting and writing classes, my groupmate Jimin Lee and I were able to conduct very in-depth interviews. We learnt so much about the technicalities of fabrics, the complex histories of traditional clothes, and why people continue to wear them to this day. It made me realise that the fun part of journalism is the never-ending process of learning just about everything. It also ignited my interest in fashion magazines.
Q: What was the most exciting part of producing Flair?
The visuals of Flair magazine were the most interesting part for me. We arranged a vision board to ensure that the photoshoots and creative direction were all aligned and consistent throughout the magazine. It also helped us be over-prepared, so we could direct our models on their poses without wasting too much time on the streets.
Seeing our interviewee’s reactions to the magazine was priceless. They were excited, happy, and told me frankly that they hadn’t expected it would turn out “that good”. I’m glad that we exceeded their expectations and did the story justice!
