The Ham&High’s student takeover team has been decided following a Dragons’ Den-style pitching session at the City of Westminster College.
Students at the college, which is merged with the College of North West London, were given the daunting task of delivering a five-minute presentation last week to a team of nine ‘dragons’.
The brief given to students for the presentation was either ‘my story begins here’ or ‘where I live and learn’.
After hearing a variety of pitches, with subjects ranging from growing up on an army barracks to immigrating from Eritrea, the ‘dragons’ – made up of a team from both colleges and Archant media group – were given the unenviable task of whittling the selection down to a group of 11 students.
This crew will take part in two days of mentoring, where they will learn about the nuts and bolts of working in media, including writing stories, use of video and learning about the commercial side of things.
Then between March 15 and March 21 the students will be working with the Ham&High team to produce an edition of the paper featuring their stories, views and pictures – all of which will be reproduced online and on various social media channels.
The winning team is made up of Jessiara Marriott, Joshua Okakpu and Carrie-Jayne Crawshaw from the City of Westminster College and Valentina Romagnoli, Corey Golzey, Filimon Okbay, Kadeeja Warsame, Jamie Jones, Tadhg Ormond, Jamal Jadunandan and Paulina Mazulyte from the College of North West London.
Paulina said: “The reason I want to get into journalism is that I want to change things and inspire people.
“Being part of the takeover team would be one more step forward for my better future.”
Filimon added: “The takeover is such a good opportunity to get a lot of experience – so it means a lot to me for my future.”
Anna Dewinter, digital product manager at Archant and part of the takeover team, said: “The next stage is for the students to take over the Ham&High to work with our editors and journalists. To write stories and to go out with them in their normal day.”
On top of this, up to two of the crop of students who impress during the takeover will win a 10-week paid internship at the Ham&High during the summer holidays.
For more information on the student takeover visit archantstudenttakeover.co.uk.
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