BY NURFARAHIN OKI
KUCHING: All 22 interns at the New Sarawak Tribune and Suara Sarawak successfully completed their internships on June 7.
Twenty of them were from University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), one from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), and one from Open University Malaysia (OUM).
They had been training with the company for three months since April and had undergone intensive training as reporters.
New Sarawak Tribune took the opportunity to interview Edwinnie Einstein Unji, 24, who has been awarded the best intern for New Sarawak Tribune.
New Sarawak Tribune: What is the most memorable experience during your three months here?
Edwinnie: Words cannot express how I feel about interning here. So much happened during the internship, but my most memorable moment was winning the Excellence Trainee Award. I did not expect to win an award, especially one like this. My second most memorable experience was editing three videos in one day because I had too much time on my hands.
How have you grown over the past three months?
Before this, I had zero confidence and interest in writing or becoming a journalist, but now I have fallen in love with writing. I now know how to find newsworthy stories, identify news quickly, and decide which news angle is good or not.
How did you feel the first time joining New Sarawak Tribune, and what did you expect from this company?
When I first came into this office, I felt scared because I didn’t have the confidence to become a journalist. But as time passed, I realised that writing is not as bad as I thought. It is fun to write and to see your work being published in the paper the next day.
What challenges did you face during your first week of internship?
The challenge in the first week had to drive early to the location of a function. Another challenge was finding the accurate location of the event because I am not from Kuching, and I had never driven that far in Kuching. I spent a lot of time driving around to find the exact locations of events. Especially when the location was not on Google Maps, it was hard, and I became very anxious. But now, I know every route and shortcut in Kuching due to this job.
What else did you learn apart from being a better writer or a better listener?
I learned to be patient. There are times when the media must wait for a certain someone or an event to start. Waiting patiently for three hours for something to come up has taught me that the more you wait, the better the outcome.
What are you grateful for after the training period?
I am grateful to have been awarded the Excellence Trainee Award in this company. I am also grateful to the people I have worked with, especially the kind seniors who have taught me well about journalism.
