Putting their knowledge to the test

Yesterday, the 22 future journalists continued getting their feet wet by putting their reporting, photography and pagination skills to the test.

Tyrell Gittens left the office early yesterday morning to cover the signing of the condolence book for Makandal Daaga, the late political leader of the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC). His eyes lit up when telling the other interns about the top people who showed up at the event.

“It was really cool,” Gittens said.

“We saw Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool, (Public Administration and Communications) Minister Maxie Cuffie was there and former Port of Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing was there.” Gittens had also joined six other interns from the news, features and photography departments on the streets of Port-of-Spain to hear the views of citizens on the performance of members of the T&T contingent at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The three NYLO interns who have the Newsday office in San Fernando as their base, started off their day with the same goal. Chequana Wheeler, a photographer, said they focused on asking people in the street about how they felt about swimmer Dylan Carter’s showing at the Olympic Games on Tuesday.

Afterwards, she and her fellow interns were on their way to report on the El Socorro’s Centre for Wildlife Conservation’s event. Even harder at work are the Tobago NYLO interns. When asked if she was encountering any challenges thus far, Shevon Nedd said, “No challenges as yet.” Having been out in the field interviewing people, Nedd said, “Everyone has been forthcoming thus far.” Though the Newsday in Tobago has a smaller staff than that of the Port-of-Spain location, all NYLO interns are gaining a great opportunity to learn from their superiors.

Xavier Sylvester, the first NYLO intern to get one of his photographs on the front page of Tuesday’s paper, explained that he’s able to now put into action the things that his senior photographers are teaching him.