Two Ryerson students win Joan Donaldson CBC News scholarships
Julianna Perkins (left) and Ashley Fraser (right) are this year’s Ryerson recipients of the Joan Donaldson Scholarship. Photo credits: Ethan Jakob Craft and Shelby Fraser.
Two RSJ students have been selected for the distinguished Joan Donaldson CBC News Scholarship.
Graduate student Ashley Fraser and fourth-year student Julianna Perkins will join eight other recipients this summer at the CBC for two five-week sessions working in Toronto and then a session in a bureau elsewhere. The award involves an extensive application process that starts in the fall.
Both happen to be British Columbians who moved to Toronto to study journalism at Ryerson.
Perkins recently completed an internship at the Globe and Mail. During her time at Ryerson, she investigated drinking water problems in southern Ontario First Nations communities, as part of the nationwide Tainted Water investigation published in the Toronto Star. Her other previous Ryerson involvements include Her Campus, the Ryersonian, Ryerson Folio Magazine and CanCulture Magazine.
When she got the call in mid-February while working at her Globe internship, she had to contain her excitement.
“I got the call kind of in the middle of the day while I was working at another job,” said Perkins. “So I couldn't really be too enthusiastic in the moment.”
“Just reading the bios of everyone selected, it seems like a ridiculously talented group of people. I'm still kind of shocked and confused that I'm on the list as well. But I think it's going to be a good experience.”
Perkins said that she doesn’t know “where the last four years went” but feels that her experience at RSJ has prepared her for whatever comes after graduation.
“I definitely picked Ryerson because of how hands-on I felt it was and I haven't been let down honestly,” said Perkins. “I think that it really kind of throws you into what the industry expects, long before you're actually there.”
Fraser is a Vancouver-born journalist who grew up in the UK and later returned to Langley, B.C. She consumed CBC and BBC growing up, and is passionate about public broadcasting.
“Hearing that I got it, I was beyond excited,” said Fraser. “I feel like it's going to really help my career.”
“I've always wanted to work for the public broadcaster. To be able to… finish off my master's degree going into this, is going to be a really special experience.”
She is completing her master’s degree and is the chief podcast editor of the Ryerson Review of Journalism. Her master’s thesis is a live journalism performance about arts education in Toronto. She was part of Hong Kong 360, RSJ’s first international travel course, telling stories using 360-degree VR video technology.
Previously, she was a summer 2017 Peter Gzowski intern at CBC Radio in Vancouver and later interned at the London bureau in the UK and at Day 6 in Toronto. Fraser has had her eye on the scholarship since meeting other Donaldson interns in Vancouver.
“I'm looking forward to being in a smaller bureau and really getting hands-on experience,” she said about the third session. “(People) say that if you go to a smaller bureau, you're able to do so much more. You can do TV, radio and digital.”
A full list of of 2020 Donaldson recipients can be found on CBC (external link) .