As the recipient of Memorial’s latest Gzowski internship, Noah Laybolt has had the time of his life reporting for CBC Radio in St. John’s this summer.
“I’ve had the opportunity to earn more than 10 bylines, so the stories have been really varied,” said Mr. Laybot, who is originally from Lununberg, N.S. “I wrote about drag queens, small businesses, tribute bands, workers’ rights, and some other cool stuff.”
He’s also on occasion covered stories elsewhere in the province, like his Aug. 9 story on Ship Cove.
One of four
As Memorial University’s choice for the annual internship opportunity – there are four in total; the other three hail from Trent University, McGill University and Simon Fraser University – Mr. Laybolt spent a week training at the CBC’s national broadcasting centre in Toronto back in May.
He will return to Toronto at the end of August for a debrief on his summer.
As an undergraduate in the English department, Mr. Laybot worked at both CHMR and The Muse as an arts section editor.
“I actually wouldn’t have landed this internship if I hadn’t read the interviews that interns had done in years past with the Gazette.”
Volunteering with CHMR is probably the greatest opportunity that students have at Memorial, says Mr. Laybolt.
“You can host your own weekly radio show and basically have it be in whatever style you want. It was awesome and I did that for a few years. It taught me a lot about on- air software and keeping my composure when doing live work.”
Mr. Laybolt was aware of famed CBC journalist Peter Gzowski from an infamous TV interview with Iggy Pop. And he used previous Gazette interviews with Gzowski interns as research for his own interview.
“I actually wouldn’t have landed this internship if I hadn’t read the interviews that interns had done in years past with the Gazette. They all gave really good advice. Volunteer with CHMR and The Muse as early in your degree as possible. Host a weekly show on student radio and help with radio news. Contribute to The Muse and maybe work your way up to a section editor. Do a MUCEP with CHMR or The Muse. All of that would be the bare minimum; anything beyond that is great.”
