Concordia's Thursday Report

Top row, Julie Roy and Angus Loten; below, Austin Webb and Lisa Harding.

Photo by Jean-François Majeau

Every year, The Gazette holds a reception in the lobby of the newspaper, on St. Jacques St., to present scholarships to outstanding journalism students. It’s also a chance for the students to meet a cross-section of working journalists from the newsroom.

Editor-in-chief Peter Stockland told his audience on Oct. 11 that he has been teaching a course this year, and enjoying it tremendously. The Gazette often hires graduating students, and he is impressed by the depth of talent in the program.

Two Philip Fisher Awards, named for a former publisher of The Gazette, went to Graduate Diploma in Journalism students Julie Roy and Austin Webb.

Julie Roy is from Quebec City. She has a BA in French and communications studies from Université de Sherbrooke, where she was president of the student union (only the third woman to hold the post) and where she twice won the Students Affairs Award for her involvement in the community as a volunteer.

Austin Webb is from Ottawa. He has a BA, combined honours, in contemporary studies and English from the University of Kings College in Halifax. Austin worked as a sous-chef at a restaurant in Ottawa to help finance his graduate studies. Now he contributes regularly to the Westmount Examiner, where he did an internship last summer.

The Susan Carson Award, named for a reporter who died 13 years ago, went to Lisa Harding. From Vancouver, Lisa has a BA in communications with a minor in political science from Simon Fraser University, where she was a reporter for The Peak, and also worked on the school’s monthly TV show, On the Hill. She lived and worked in Australia for 16 months and would like to write about environmental issues.

Also presented at the reception was the Lewis Harris Award, named for a reporter who died two years ago. It went to Angus Loten, currently in his third year, working towards a second BA. His first was in philosophy from Carleton University, after which he worked for the Bangkok Post for three years.

Last summer, Angus was offered summer jobs at the Globe and Mail and The Gazette, but turned them both down in order to go to New York for a paid internship at Time magazine, which he was awarded after a cross-Canada competition.