Rosemary wins four at the Write Stuff student journalism awards

Picture: Rob Bruce, deputy editor of the Herald and Times, presents the award for best Scottish student journalist of the year to Rosemary Lowne.

An outstanding student on an NCTJ-accredited course won four awards at a ceremony last night celebrating the best of Scottish student journalism.

 The Write Stuff Journalism Competition awards ceremony and reception was held in the Banqueting Hall of the City Chambers in Glasgow.

Rosemary Lowne, an NCTJ student council representative for the accredited HND in Journalism Studies at Cardonald College, Glasgow, won the award for best news writing, best sports writing and best scoop and also won the overall award for best Scottish student journalist of the year.

Rosemary, 25, from Dumbarton, received the award for best Scottish student journalist of the year from Rob Bruce, deputy editor of the Herald and Times.

She said: “It was really great to be in the City Chambers and to win these awards, I could not believe it. This event celebrates the work of young journalists and it allows student journalists to meet up with people on other courses.”

 Rosemary won the news writing and best scoop award for following up a call placed to the Greenock Telegraph when she was on work experience.

The call was from a local couple who, after joking on a social networking site that they had won £45 million in euros on the Euromillons lottery, suddenly found themselves besieged by a press pack looking for the real winners, who remained hidden.

 Rosemary kept trying to contact the couple on the telephone and was the only journalist to speak to the couple about their problem, despite the hundreds of journalists camped right outside their door.

Rosemary added: “It was hard to get in contact with them as one of them was working shifts, but once I had explained who I was a great story came out.”

The award-winning sports article written by Rosemary featured the Scottish Gymnastics squad and their preparations for the Commonwealth Games, to be held in Glasgow in 2014.

Gillian Provan, a student on the NCTJ-accredited BA (Hons) Journalism course at Glasgow Caledonian University, won the award for best entertainment writing.

Victoria Irvine, a student on the HND in Journalism Studies at Cardonald College was another NCTJ success story winning an award for feature writing.

Students from NCTJ-accredited courses shortlisted for awards were: Nicola Hamilton, Cardonald College; Lesley Quinn, Cardonald College; Amir Rashid, Glasgow Caledonian University; and Gemma Mackenzie, Glasgow Caledonian University.

 Keynote speaker at the event was Mike Russell MSP, cabinet secretary for education and lifelong learning.

Martin Boyle, event organiser, said: “The awards are going from strength-to-strength with massive industry backing. It’s about encouraging the best journalism training and encouraging the best in students.”