Students begin unique overseas residency program

Northwestern University in Qatar students travel abroad for 10-week Journalism Residency Program

Twenty Northwestern University in Qatar students have undertaken the school’s annual journalism and public relation internship program with leading media institutions in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. The program provides students with the opportunity to work fulltime for, with, and alongside veteran journalists or public relations practitioners in professional environments.

“The goal of this program,” said D. Charles Whitney, associate dean for academic affairs, “is for students to get the kinds of hands-on experience that helps them develop new skills, test old skills, work under deadline pressure, hone their news judgment, sharpen their fact-checking and research skills, build confidence in their capabilities and explore new career paths not previously considered. This is a wonderful and unique opportunity offered by Northwestern.”

“This program,” said Everette E. Dennis, dean and CEO of Northwestern University in Qatar, “offers our students an opportunity to get hands-on experience in the global media world. Working at prestigious media outlets such as the Huffington Post and Forbes magazine, as well as global public relation firms, including Grayling and Rubicon, students learn more about the many opportunities open to them as graduates of Northwestern University.”

Shakeeb Asrar, a journalism junior who will be interning at USA Today, hopes to supplement his knowledge of the news media with real-life experience. “I am really excited for my internship and have been looking forward to it since joining NU-Q,” he said. “I will finally be able to apply lessons from the classroom in a professional newsroom and hopefully get my work published.”

Assigned to Blue Rubicon, a public relations firm in London, Nayab Malik, a journalism/PR student, is experiencing her second overseas opportunity with NU-Q. Last summer, Malik was chosen to participate in a program offered by Northwestern--Engage Chicago (Chicago House), which is an eight-week residential summer program for outstanding undergraduate students. With the journalism residency program, Malik is hoping that it will “prepare me for life after college, when I start working. I hope to be able to adapt to this new place so that in the future, I can adapt wherever I'm sent to work or live.”

The students participating in this year’s program, and the companies where they are placed are: