Choosing Journalism as a career

Last Friday, June 15, 2012, the S.6 Literature class of Riviera High School visited The New Times offices in a bid to learn and explore the benefits of Journalism as a career. The students were led by their Literature teacher, Maureen Mutesi.Mutesi says the students were eager to explore all possible career paths they could pursue from their writing and readings skills, especially in relation to print media. “The students have already written several articles and have the potential to become good journalists. By bringing them here, we hope that they will be inspired through learning about how the newspaper is produced,” explains Mutesi.Mutesi doubles as the English and Literature teacher at Riviera High School. She says English is one of the subjects that students learn at a later stage and writing is one of the ways through which the students can improve on their performance.“Being an English teacher is hard, because students start learning the language when in higher classes. This makes me feel that English language teachers are doing a great job in Rwanda because of the impact it has on students’ lives,” she said. The students spoke to a number of editors, reporters and the paper’s photojournalists who took them through the process of how The New Times newspaper is produced. They were encouraged to write articles as a way of improving their writing skills.“We are glad that we came and have learnt about how journalists work on their stories and the stages of news production,” said Melissa, one of the students.By the end of the newsroom tour, most of the students were excited about the process of news production. They were also treated to visits to The New Times sister paper Izuba Rirashe, a Kinyarwanda online publication, as well as the administration section, where they learnt that newspaper production requires proper management. “I am interested in becoming a journalist in the future and this trip has inspired me,” Koumba Lam Jade said. She added that, she was ready to share her experience and teach her fellow students in the school’s writing club on how to write better.