Sarah Jackson, an undergraduate student in Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s journalism program, made news in New York with a 10-week winter internship at MSNBC where she helped produce live television.
In 2010, Jackson received Kwantlen’s prestigious “John Reiss Award in Journalism,” named after the executive producer of MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews.
She has also won seven other student awards and has been on the Dean’s Honour Roll six times.
After Jackson sent her internship application to John Reiss, her talent was recognized right away and she was invited to MSNBC’s New York studio to join his adrenaline-driven team of top producers and technicians.
Jackson’s jumped right into her role as Hardball’s intern; soon after her arrival in New York, she was fact-checking the news stories scheduled for that evening’s broadcast.
The next few hours would see her digging frantically through background research, relevant news clips, photos and videos to accompany the stories.
During the live broadcast, Jackson assisted with coordinating the communication and activities of the studio guests.
When asked what she learned from her internship at MSNBC, Jackson said “Humility – I was so impressed by the way people in such high positions were kind and respectful to everyone, even to people in unimportant positions like me. Everyone worked together as a team.
“I walked away realizing that if such powerful people don’t act like they are more important than others, why would I?”
Apart from being a full-time student at Kwantlen, Jackson is a freelance reporter.
Her work has appeared in several Lower Mainland newspapers and websites.
Jackson is also the media coordinator for the Acting Together-CURA project at Kwantlen which is aimed at reducing youth violence and youth gang involvement.
In her role she maintains and updates the project website, creates new content, takes videos and photos of the project events, and also compiles research on the media portrayal of youth violence and gangs for the project.
