Senior Farida Fawzy and junior Nana Agyemang the first set of winners to receive the J. Michael Shanahan Journalism Internship Fund, which allows rising seniors in the journalism and mass communication major to pursue a summer internship at a news organization that they otherwise might now have been able to afford. Both winners are pursuing careers in journalism, yet in very different ways and come from very different backgrounds.
Fawzy, who is Egyptian and is an international student from Abu Dhabi, has been interning with BBC since last October. She works at the news desk, helping the broadcast department research and produce stories. Thanks to the Shanahan Internship Fund, she is able to extend the internship into this summer.
“I come from an international background,” said Fawzy. “I really like that aspect of media and journalism; that it’s so global. At first, I was undecided at GW. When I started taking classes in SMPA, I learned how globalized the media has become and how much of an international impact it has. I realized that journalism and mass communication is well suited for me and my interests.”
Agyemang is one of the founding members of the GW Association of Black Journalists and plans to begin her internship this summer with “CBS This Morning.” Growing up in an urban neighborhood in New Jersey, Agyemang felt that minority voices were never heard in such a populated community, so she began to collect stories and talk to people and thought, “Isn’t this reporting?”
“At age 11 or 12, I was interviewing people and I didn’t even know it,” said Agyemang. “On the other side, my focus is photo journalism. I want to be able to capture stories through photographs. Sometimes people don’t want to talk and sometimes they don’t need to talk. You can capture the emotions in a story through a photograph and it really tells a million words.”
As one might expect, BBC and CBS internships are no “getting-coffee-and-making-copies” positions. Fawzy and Agyemang have a rigorous summer ahead.
“Just recently, one of the producers offered me the opportunity to pitch her a story idea and produce a full news package from start to finish,” said Fawzy. “This is the first time I’m going to be working this hands on and I hope to leave the internship this summer having completed a full news package.”
As for Agyemang, this will be her first journalism internship. She says she’s a little nervous but also ecstatic to see what it’s like.
“I am actually one of the very few students from GW selected to work on the CBS Morning Show,” said Agyemang. “Being one of the few, I hope to set a good example and expose the skills SMPA teaches us so that CBS invests in more GW students.”
Professor Shanahan passed away in 2014 after many years of heading up SMPA’s internship program, and the fund was created in his memory. It goes without saying that he would be extremely proud of this year’s recipients of his journalism fund. Fawzy and Agyemang possess valuable skills and professionalism. They are excellent representations of GW, Professor Shanahan, and the journalism profession overall.
“I’m definitely honored to receive the award in the name of Professor Shanahan,” said Fawzy. “I’ve come so far at BBC and being able to continue this summer will only help me grow. I’ve learned the basics and now I can finally put them to use.”
The ultimate goal of this internship fund is to help launch students into careers they are most passionate about.
“What I want do in journalism is cover the disparities that are going on in communities,” said Agyemang. “I want to be the voice that talks about racial, feminine, and minority issues. That’s my goal.”
Congratulations Farida Fawzy and Nana Agyemang. We wish you luck and success this summer!