WELLINGTON: A young Indo-Fijian New Zealander has been awarded the 2011 Asia New Zealand Foundation Kiwi Asian Journalism Scholarship.
The successful candidate, Clarissa Chandrahasen, is of Indo-Fijian heritage. She comes from Kelson in Lower Hutt.
Chandrahasen has a degree in biomedical science from Victoria University and is enrolled in the 2011 Massey University journalism programme.
“One of the things I love about New Zealand is that we recognise the need for all our diverse cultures to contribute to all our industries in order to ensure our collective success. By improving the representation of Kiwi Asians in the journalism industry, we can ensure balanced media coverage of stories that are relevant to all New Zealanders,” she said.
The Kiwi Asian Journalism Scholarship is designed to attract more young Kiwi Asians into journalism study and to encourage increased representation of Asian communities in the mainstream journalism.
The Kiwi Asian Journalism Scholarship will apply to the 2011 academic year and is for the value of $5000 to be paid on completion of Ms Chandrahasen’s course of journalism study.
The 2012 scholarship will be open for applications in August.
Last year's inaugural scholarship was won by Corazon Miller, a Filipina-NZ nurse who graduated as a journalist with a Postgradfuate Diploma in Communication Studies from AUT University.
Asian media internships
The foundation also announced two media scholarships to undertake internships at two Asia-based media organisations later this year.
The journalists are Tim Lambourne (TV3) and Daniel Simmons-Ritchie (Wairarapa Times-Age).
Lambourne will work at the International Herald Tribune in Hong Kong. He has just completed a communications degree majoring in journalism at AUT University and is a part time reporter for 3 News and the Nightline programmes.
Daniel Simmons-Ritchie will go to the Philippine Star in Manila. He is a graduate of Whitireia Journalism School in Wellington and is employed as a reporter at the Wairarapa Times-Age in Masterton.
The deadline for next year’s scholarship applications will be 1 November 2011. - Asia NZ Foundation/Pacific Media Watch
Pacific Media Watch
