Award-winning student journalist joins NCTJ

Award-winning student journalist, Lisa Nelson from Belfast Metropolitan College, is to join the NCTJ as the new Journalism Diversity Fund Intern from July 2012.

Lisa was presented with two prizes at the Belfast Metropolitan College Journalism Awards on Monday night, winning both the European Commission Prize for public affairs and the Thackway Prize for design and editing.

Commenting on her win, Mike Gilson, editor of the Belfast Telegraph, said: “Lisa had a neat layout on her page and a clever combination of the headline with the picture on the lead. The key to good page design is use of pictures combined with smart headlines and a good balance between stories and illustration. This page showed all of these.”

Maurice Neill, course co-ordinator, added: “Lisa demonstrated a sound knowledge of public affairs in Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland and achieved the top mark in the public affairs examination.”

Lisa was also awarded the BBC’s Paul Robinson bursary earlier this year.

The Journalism Diversity Fund is designed to help students from socially and ethnically diverse backgrounds achieve their dreams of becoming journalists by helping to fund their NCTJ training. As the Diversity Intern, Lisa will be responsible for administering and promoting the fund and encouraging more people to apply.  

She says: “I’m very grateful to the NCTJ for giving me this opportunity to begin my career in journalism. I’m looking forward to the challenge of developing the Journalism Diversity Fund and promoting it within the media industry.”