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CBC/McGill Internship: a great opportunity for Schulich students!

Published: 11 September 2017

(Blog post by Chris Maskell)

In today’s music industry, many artists find that they have to diversify their sources of income in order to make a living – some may teach, repair instruments or work in music media. To reflect this, many post-secondary music schools are diversifying their curriculums to offer classes that teach skills from these areas – such as the courses that make up the new Music Entrepreneurship minor at the Schulich School of Music.

In addition to these classes, students at Schulich have an extra chance to build journalism skills, as the institution has a long-running association with CBC which allows students to work for credit with the CBC Montreal music department. Over the course of a year, the selected intern will have the chance to build on their strengths in media and journalism as well as be exposed to new areas in the field they may not be familiar with. As producer Robert Rowat tells it, the benefits of this program go two ways.

“Mentoring the CBC/McGill music interns over the past few years has probably been as enriching an experience for me as it has been for them. I'm always impressed by their abilities and competence in specialized areas of expertise. I learn from them, and in return I try to involve them in different aspects of public broadcasting — radio, music production, online editorial — so they can get the most from their internship. We work hard, but we also have a lot of fun.”

While the students consistently work on a variety of CBC Music’s yearly events, such as the Searchlight competition, they’re given a significant amount of leeway to take on projects of their choosing. For Claire Motyer, the 2016-2017 intern, this open approach allowed her to get more involved in writing. “The internship helped me to find my voice as a writer and inspired me to make music journalism part of my future career plans. This experience developed a new passion to bring musician’s stories alive and gave me the courage to start my musicians’ health blog.”

Eric Haynes (who participated in 2014-2015), also had high praise of the program.

“The CBC/McGill internship is an amazing opportunity to work for credit in the newsroom of CBC Montreal. During my time as intern, I published work online for CBC Music and CBC News, had the unexpected opportunity to interview Diana Krall, and watched the production of an episode of ‘q’ in Toronto. My experience changed the way I view the media landscape and arts scene in Canada, and the internship was an invaluable networking opportunity. For anyone interested in music journalism and production, it's the best bootcamp you could ask for.”

For those interested in taking part in the 2017-2018 CBC/McGill Internship, applications are now open and interested students need to apply by September 22, 2017.

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