📍 Victoria, BC - Those of you who are subscribed to the Capital Daily newsletter or frequented the site over the summer will recognize me as this year’s summer intern. For those who don’t know, from mid-June to the beginning of August, I worked remotely for the Capital Daily team to support their work and learn how a long-form, investigative, local news, and startup organization functions.
Long story short, my internship experience with Capital Daily was phenomenal. Having just started in the journalism industry, I was craving new experiences, information, and opportunities. I found all of that, and much more in my 8 weeks working here.
A day in the life
My day as a Capital Daily intern was jam-packed. And there’s absolutely nothing I would’ve loved more!
From posting socials to helping cut audio clips for the podcast, and hunting around for stories to include in the newsletter, I was exposed to almost every aspect of Capital Daily.
Looking back, it’s mind-blowing to me how much I learned in a short 8-week period. But that exposure surely will continue to help me gain a stronger foundation in journalism to make my way through the industry.
While I loved my day-to-day activities, the highlight of my experience was writing about the fishery management study with the Wuikinuxv Nation.
Capital Daily’s managing editor Jimmy Thomson first introduced the story to me and encouraged me to reach out to interview the study’s primary researchers, after hearing about my own interest to pursue science journalism.
With his guidance, I was able to break through into a part of journalism I’d been yearning to gain more experience in. The best thing was that the story covered almost every inch of my personal interests: salmon conservation, BC, and the perseverance of a marginalized community.
At every step of the way, I received so much support from everyone at Capital Daily. Even if they weren’t directly involved in helping me write and develop the story, the team was excited and encouraging of my work before, and even after, it was published.
My takeaways
As an early-career journalist, I’ve been feeling pressure to figure out what I’ll do in journalism after I graduate from UBC. But the experience of writing that story, along with the connections and conversations I had with folks during my internship, allowed me to have a sort of ‘Aha!’ epiphany moment.
It’s here that I realized that I want to explore how marginalized communities are affected or are solving health and environmental issues they face. This newfound goal has given me a new air of confidence and drive to push through my final year at UBC.
I want to give a massive thanks to everyone at Capital Daily for allowing me to intern over the summer and their readers for their positive reinforcement and encouraging me to aim high as a journalist. This experience was more than I’d imagined it to be and I loved every moment of it.
