GC Alumna Nicole celebrates national journalism success

Our very own GC Alumna, Nicole Bower, is celebrating as her heartwarming news article is published in the national press. 

Her article shares the story of a 7 year old boy, Stanley, who was inspired by Marcus Rashford’s Free School Meals campaign, fighting for underprivileged children to have access to food during the holidays. Stanley, who starred in a recent advert for cadbury’s, has hand-written letters and delivered to his neighbours asking them to donate food.

Nicole, who studied English Literature, Politics and Modern History at Greenhead College from 2018-2020, is delighted to be able to share Stanley’s story and we are so proud of her success.  Click here to read the full story.

Commenting on the article, Nicole, now a student at the Manchester School of Journalism, said:

“I saw a post on Facebook about the little boy sending letters to his neighbours for food in aid to help the free school meals campaign and spoke to his mum only thinking it would be a little story but the national paper ended up wanting it! Even though I don’t have a by-line I can still proudly say that I sourced, interviewed and wrote the story!”

“The advice I’d give to other students wanting to get into journalism would be just to be confident and know your stuff. This will come in really handy when wanting to interview people, even if you aren’t a employed journalist tell them that you are a journalist because anyone can actually be one, they will be more likely to speak to you then. You also have to show you are interested not just for the title but show that you are interested because you love doing it, write articles and stories on things you like, hobbies, reviews, this will all show to employers or universities that you really really want to do it. And especially, no story is too small, you never know where it might end up or who likes it!”

A huge congratulations Nicole, we can’t wait to see even more of your stories hit the headlines in the future!

A2 Student, Orla becomes co-founder of female journalism website “Empoword Journalism”

During the lockdown period, A2 student Orla McAndrew has shown initiative, creativity and determination as she, along with a group of young women, established the brand new website and project ‘Empoword Journalism’.

Founded in May 2020, ‘Empoword Journalism’ is a project which spans across multiple platforms and is led by self-identifying women. It is a place for entry-level journalists to engage and connect with others.

It all began after Orla and her team attended a zoom chat called ‘An Evening with 5 Fabulous Females in Journalism’. It soon became apparent that Orla shared similar views to other budding journalists in feeling that females are under-represented and that it is currently a huge challenge for women to break into the industry. ‘Empoword Journalism’ was then created as an accessible platform for young journalists.

Ever since then, over 100 articles have been created by over 70 contributors, which have covered a range of topics, and they are on the lookout for more!

If you would like to contribute to the website then you can join their Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/669865370255616

When talking about the project for their 100th post, Orla commented:

“This project is important because it unites women across the country; creating a network of women and non-binary journalists. This network is key to support journalists emerging into a male-dominated industry where it is difficult to be taken seriously. I’m so excited to see where this project will go and to work with/learn from these incredible women”.

Check out the ‘Empoword Journalism’ website here: https://empowordjournalism.com/

This is an outstanding, passionate project and we wish Orla every success as she embarks on her new journey.