A chance to interview her role model and test the waters on a possible future career was an “exhilarating” experience for White Rock teen Julia Albert.
The 16-year-old, in Grade 10 French-immersion at Earl Marriott Secondary, was among eight youth chosen for CBC Radio-Canada Television’s 2016 Jeun’Info – a program aimed at giving aspiring young journalists a real-life taste of the field.
She won the opportunity through audition, then was challenged to do a news piece on a topic of her choosing; taking the issue from start to finish, through subject interviews to editing.
The final piece – featuring White Rock native and Olympian Hilary Caldwell and shot, in part, at the new pool in South Surrey’s Grandview Heights – along with a live-to-air interview, airs tomorrow (Wednesday) at 6 p.m.
“I’m excited,” Albert said of her pending feature.
The process of creating it began after she was selected for Jeun’Info in December. In the months that followed, Albert shadowed a CBC reporter for a few days, chose her topic, set up interviews and created footage – countless hours of work to create the 3½ minutes that will be broadcast.
CBC Radio-Canada host and Jeun’Info co-ordinator Julie Carpentier said the program, in its sixth year, aims “to initiate the young people to a newscast.”
Albert “found a really good story,” she said.
For Albert, who was among about 30 Grade 10-12 students to audition, it was an eye-opening look at the workings of television news.
“I was shocked at how much thinking and thought processes and co-ordination goes into just a tiny piece,” Albert said.
The effort far from discouraged Albert from considering a career as a journalist. She discovered it combines her interest in public speaking, communicating and learning.
“You can communicate and educate the society around you about important issues and maybe voices that aren’t always heard,” she said.
“You’re almost a teacher… constantly learning, and I like that.”
Meeting and interviewing Caldwell – who is currently aiming to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro – was also a thrill for Albert, who said the competitive swimmer was “wonderful, so animated and had so many great things to say on the camera.”
Albert said she built her piece around a statistic that shows the drop-out rate of young female athletes is six times higher than their male counterparts. In addition to Caldwell, she interviewed fellow EMS student Annabelle Epp and coach Annie Wolfe.
She’s optimistic the final draft will send a strong message.
Caldwell “knows what it was to work hard,” Albert said. “I think she’s going to motivate young athletes.”
Albert said another bonus of being on the Jeun’Info team was the impact it had on her French-language skills – it was complete immersion.
Her dad, David, described her selection to the team – along with three provincial wins at public-speaking competitions – as a non-Francophone as “exceptional.”
“A demonstration that you can learn a second language fluently in our public school system.”
Tomorrow's CBC Radio-Canada piece will air the final cuts of all eight Jeun’Info participants’ projects.
