Hannah wins Most Outstanding Journalism Student award
University of the Sunshine Coast journalism student Hannah Klose won the Most Outstanding Journalism Student from a regional campus award at the 2006 Queensland Media Awards in Brisbane on Saturday 21 October.
Hannah, 25, whose competition entry comprised television stories she completed while on internship with Seven Local News this year, said she was thrilled with the award that carried $2000 in prize money.
"I’m pretty blown away that I’ve won in that sort of company," she said of the two other finalists for the award, including fellow USC journalism student Renae Henry.
Hannah said the guidance she had received from USC Senior Lecturer in Journalism Dr Stephen Lamble and tutors Desley Bartlett and Seven Local News presenter Rosanna Natoli were major factors in her success, as was USC’s strong links with the local media.
"Honestly, without Stephen Lamble as my guru, I don’t think I would have been at the awards,’’ she said. "He’s encouraged, challenged and pushed me into things that I wouldn’t have done myself.
"He’s opened doors for me to the media on the Sunshine Coast, such as working for Seven Local News and with HOT FM. He’s helped me with constructive criticism and he’s just so spot on because he’s had so much experience as a journalist himself.’’
Surprisingly, another factor in her success was the experience of failing her first assignment when she started her Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Journalism and Public Relations in 2003.
"I actually failed my first assignment. It was in Australian Media Studies and it was only worth about 10 percent of the marks,’’ she admitted. "I thought ‘maybe I’m not cut out for this’ but then I decided to give it another shot and, in my next assignment, I got a credit.’’
"It was a ‘rubber meets the road’ sort of thing. It really set the bar for me to keep working hard.’’
Hannah is in her final year at USC and has continued working as a casual reporter and caption-writer for Seven Local News. She describes this as "putting in the hard yards" to gain greater success towards her career goal of working for Channel 7 in Melbourne.
After finishing school, Hannah did youth work, was a member of a full-time band in NSW and then moved to Noosa in 2001 to run surfing safaris.
She started studying at USC in 2003, deferred in 2004 to do publicity work with Sea FM, but decided journalism was her passion and returned to full-time study in 2005.
"Winning an award like this is really encouraging when you’re starting out in an industry,’’ Hannah said. "It’s an acknowledgement that it is the right track, that this is something that I should be doing.’’
Fellow student Renae Henry, whose Queensland Media Awards entry comprised five articles she wrote as an intern at the Sunshine Coast Daily, congratulated Hannah on her success and said she was delighted to have been a finalist at the awards night.
"It was a great night for networking,’’ she said. "I met heaps of credible and experienced people. I had heaps of people coming over and congratulating me."
Renae also thanked USC teaching staff for helping her become an awards finalist.
"I wouldn’t be where I am without studying at USC and the great mentors that I’ve had as well as the team at the Sunshine Coast Daily and Seven Local News.’’
Dr Lamble said Hannah deserved the award and had a bright journalistic career ahead of her.
"It was a fantastic effort for both Hannah and Renae, particularly to make it through as finalists,’’ he said. "To have two of the three finalists from our University was just fantastic. It was a shame that one of them had to miss out.’’
"It really shows that our program has come of age and our approach is working because all of our students can work in more than one media platform – print, TV, radio and web – and it increases their chances of getting a job."
Dr Lamble said the University currently had an employment rate of close to 100 percent for journalism graduates. The 2006 Course Experience Questionnaire conducted by Graduate Careers Australia showed USC's journalism graduates in 2005 gave the University a 100 percent satisfaction rating for the overall quality of its journalism program and for high quality teaching.
Dr Lamble said the media awards recognised Hannah and Renae’s hard work, as well as the roles small classes, quality teaching and the help of industry professionals play in preparing students for the workplace.
"It is recognition of how our University is growing and maturing and that our journalism program is right up there with the leading edge.’’