Journalism student, Emma Rae Woodhouse, will carry out a four-week internship with Sky News after winning the 2017 Bob Friend Memorial Scholarship.
Ed Conway, Sky News Economics Editor and Times columnist, presented Emma, 18, with her award at the annual Bob Friend Memorial Lecture on Thursday 2 March, 2017.
The Centre for Journalism student won her work placement after submitting a story idea that could be run on Sky News and succeeding in an interview and current affairs test. Emma’s story idea reflected her part-time job in a doctors’ surgery. As part of her prize, she will also receive a £3,500 contribution towards her tuition fees.
The judges at the Royal Historic Dockyard Chatham event, Peter Diapre, Deputy Editor of Sky News Online, and Professor Tim Luckhurst and Ian Reeves from the Centre for Journalism, said that Emma’s NHS experience meant she brought experience other students did not have.
Emma lives in Higham in Kent and attended Knole Academy, Sevenoaks and Fort Pitt Grammar School in Rochester. She chose the Centre for Journalism because its BA in Journalism combines a strong academic focus on traditional academic subjects with intense vocational training accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Professor Luckhurst said: ‘Emma really deserves her success. Her story about violence against NHS staff shows a great instinct for news. I’m sure she will soon join the list of Bob Friend Scholars who have gone on to top jobs in journalism’.
Emma said she was ‘shocked but thrilled to pieces’ by the award and looking forward to her work experience at Sky News this summer.
The lecture was established in 2009 by a partnership of the Friend family, Sky News and the University in memory of Bob Friend, who was the original face of Sky News as well as a long-serving BBC journalist.