By Aydan Kelly
My name is Aydan, I’m a Year 10 student at St Columban’s College and an aspiring journalist, aiming to reach the heights of sports journalism.
I have always been strongly interested in sports and it has been my way to connect with people and wind down after life.
Wanting to be an athlete as a young child, sports journalism morphed from a backup plan into a likely future career.
I have fallen in love with yapping about sports and being able to do that as a career and get paid for it.
Journalism is hard to get into with a lack of courses across high schools preparing you for the role of journalists.
Luckily enough, The Sentinel and GC&M News were nice enough to provide me with some work experience over the course of four days, from September 14-18.
Walking into this experience, I had no clue what to expect.
Will I do anything? Will I be put to work from 9-5? Will they all dislike me?
However, all of my concerns were put to bed the second I walked in the door and Mitch introduced me to the warm family that runs the paper. The family consisted of only ten people across two different newspapers, all very talented at their job.
From then, Marina took me under her wing and taught me all there was to know about being the editor and journalist for The Sentinel.
I learnt a lot from her, whether it be how to space lines properly, or the tone that grabs people’s attention.
I also learnt that sushi can bring a whole office together.
From the initial induction, I have been lucky enough to have three stories published.
On days two and three, I was out and about in Caboolture taking photos and conducting interviews.
On day four I went out to the opening of the Maleny Golf Course Clubhouse. I am very grateful to the team at the Sentinel and GC&M News for the opportunity to be a part of the organisation.