Contributors
TEACHERS IN RWANDA NOW
 Jim HandmanRI Radio Teacher, National University of Rwanda |
JIM HANDMAN is one of Canada’s most respected and experienced science journalists, with more than 25 years under his belt at Canada’s public radio service, CBC Radio in Toronto. He’s the executive producer of the highly acclaimed science radio show “Quirks & Quarks.”Before joining the show, he spent a decade in Radio News, serving as foreign editor for the national news service and senior producer of the network’s morning news program, World Report. During his time at “Quirks & Quarks,” Handman and his team of producers have won more than a dozen national and international awards, including prizes from the Canadian Science Writers Association, the Canadian Nurses Association, the American Institute of Physics, the American Geophysical Union, and the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association. He has also overseen the publication of two best-selling books based on the program, “The Quirks & Quarks Question Book” and “The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space.”
In addition, Handman has taught journalism at Ryerson University and Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada. In Rwanda, he teaches radio at the National University of Rwanda in Butare. |
 Paul Koring RI Print Reporting Teacher, Great Lakes Media Center |
PAUL KORING is the Globe and Mail’s international affairs correspondent based in Washinton D.C. He has been a foreign correspondent for more than 20 years, previously in New York, and London, and has filed from more than 40 countries.His conflict coverage includes the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf war, the Balkan wars and Afghanistan.
He covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent Eastern European revolutions. In 2008, Koring and Graeme Smith won the Michener award for their coverage of detainee abuse in Afghanistan. In Rwanda, Koring is teaching print reporting to a group of working journalists at the Great Lakes Media Center in Kigali. |
 Jennifer Moroz RI Teacher, National University of Rwanda |
JENNIFER MOROZ is an award-winning journalist who has worked in both print and television. She is currently a producer for the CBC’s The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos, where, among other things, she is responsible for the show’s political guests/interviews.Previously, she was a staff writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer, where she covered a bit of everything: suburban life, regional transportation issues and New Jersey’s crazy political scene in addition to national and international stories.While at the Inquirer, she led the 2006 coverage of the dismantling of the national sports betting ring run by NHL star Rick Tocchet. She also spent more than a year reporting a Pulitzer Prize-nominated narrative series about a small, blue-collar New Jersey town struggling to adjust to a major influx of undocumented Brazilian immigrants. The project took her to the Amazon region, where she visited the hometowns of several immigrants and reported on the economic conditions they fled and the lives and families they left behind.
Jennifer started her career in journalism as an intern at CNN New York. She also worked as a researcher for CFCF News in her hometown of Montreal and as associate editor of the Canadian Footwear Journal before getting her masters at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She spent the next nine years in the US, working in print before making the leap back to Canada – and to TV – in December 2007. When she isn’t working, Jennifer might be found scribbling in a journal or drafting characters she tells herself will someday anchor a novel. She likes to run and loves to travel, especially if the itinerary isn’t set in stone. |
 Renee PellerinRI Teacher, National University of Rwanda |
RENEE PELLERIN is a television and radio journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and a journalism teacher and trainer. She has been an Executive or Senior Producer of several current affairs and news programs, and in September will take on new duties as the Managing Editor of CBC North.She was a Visiting Chair in the School of Journalism at the University of Regina 1999-2000, and for several years was a part time instructor at Ryerson University School of Journalism in Toronto. She is also a CBC trainer who teaches journalism and numbers and critical thinking courses to staff. She has won many international awards for her work. |
 Saša Petricic RI Teacher, Great Lakes Media Center |
SASA PETRICIC is an award-winning videojournalist, working for CBC television’s flagship news and current affairs program The National. After more than a decade as a national reporter for CBC News, he pioneered a videojournalism approach to documentaries for The National. He turned the challenge of working alone as a journalist, cameraman, producer and editor, into a personal style, and an advantage. Saša’s videojournalism has taken him to every continent – even Antarctica.He has worked in the war zones of Afghanistan, aboard icebreakers in the Far North, in the minefields the Mozambique and the killing fields of Rwanda. He chronicled the impact of the Tsunami in Thailand and Indonesia, child prostitution in the Philippines and global warming from Australia to the South Pole.
His work has been recognized with numerous awards, beating out stories done by much larger, traditional crews. Last year, his investigative documentary The Wave of Christianity from Thailand was nominated for a Gemini Award. |
 Denise Rudnicki RI Teacher, National University of Rwanda |
DENISE RUDNICKI is a journalist and university lecturer. She has worked in radio and television newsrooms across Canada, has taught full time in the journalism school at Carleton University, and is currently living in Victoria, BC where she freelances and teaches at Royal Roads University and the University of Victoria.
She is teaching first-year journalism students at the National University of Rwanda in Butare for four weeks this summer. |
 Jeff Sallot RI Teacher, Great Lakes Media Center |
JEFF SALLOT joined the Carleton School of Journalism’s faculty in 2007 after a long reporting career at The Globe and Mail and globeandmail.com. He’s been the Globe’s bureau chief in Moscow, Ottawa and Edmonton, the lead political correspondent for the Globe’s website during recent federal elections, and has reported from every corner of Canada, and from more than 30 foreign countries.
A graduate of the Kent State University journalism school, he shared a Pulitzer Prize with colleagues at The Akron Beacon-Journal for his eyewitness coverage of the massacre of four Kent State students by the Ohio National Guard during an anti-war demonstration. His coverage of RCMP security service scandals in Quebec for the Globe resulted in the publication of his book on police corruption. Sallot was the Globe’s diplomatic and security correspondent, based in Ottawa, from 1992 until he joined the faculty. He’s covered violent conflicts in Afghanistan, Rwanda, Russia, Armenia and Lithuania. He was a National Newspaper Award finalist for political reporting in 2004. He’s been a guest commentator for the BBC, CBC Radio and TV, CTV and other broadcast networks. |
INTERNS IN RWANDA NOW
 Andréanne Baribeau RI Journalism Intern, Radio 10 |
ANDRÉANNE BARIBEAU is originally from Quebec City but spent most of her life in Ottawa. As she was doing her undergraduate studies in physics and math at the University of Ottawa, she wandered away from the lab and discovered the student newspaper and eventually, the campus community radio station, where she got the chance to create and co-host two radio shows.
She decided to pursue this newfound passion of hers, which brought her to Carleton University, where she’s now pursuing a Masters in Journalism. Her main reporting interests include social justice, science and the environment. Andréanne has interned at the CBC in Quebec and Toronto as well as at the Orleans Star community newspaper in Ottawa. In Rwanda, she’ll be working at Radio 10 in Kigali. |
 Zahra Bhimani RI Communication Intern |
ZAHRA BHIMANI, originally from Toronto, Ontario, is currently completing her third year of a double degree in Mass Communications and Political Science with a concentration in International Relations.
Bhimani spent the past year leading the Journalists for Human Rights chapter at Carleton University as Co-President. Her first international experience was a service learning trip in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where she spent as much time as she could learning about Mexico’s media shift from authoritarianism to citizen-based journalism. She is also very much interested in community service learning and actively volunteers not only within the Ottawa community, but also in her home town, Scarborough. Bhimani plans on plan on pursuing a Master’s Degree in Journalism or Communications, eventually combining her interests for community service learning and journalism, while raising awareness for local and international issues. |
 Adam Chen RI Public Policy Intern |
ADAM CHEN just completed his third year abroad studying and completing an internship in Ecuador where he worked and wrote a thesis about his experiences in a Popular/Micro-Finance NGO. In September, he plans to continue his degree in Public Affairs and Policy Management with a specialization in Development.
His interests and passions are mostly related to food/poverty issues and international Canadian policy. In high school, he first became aware of issues regarding third world development and since then has striven to travel and learn about these cultures. |
 Yolande Cole RI Journalism Intern, Focus Newspaper |
YOLANDE COLE is a graduate in the direct entry Master of Journalism program at Carleton University. She did her undergraduate degree in journalism in Calgary, Alberta, where she specialized in print and photojournalism.She has worked as a reporter and photographer in Calgary and Fort McMurray, Alberta, and recently did an apprenticeship at the Ottawa Citizen.
Cole speaks French and Spanish and has had the opportunity to travel extensively over the last few years, including trips to South America, Australia and Thailand.She has never been to East Africa before and is looking forward to learning more about the region. This summer she will be interning at Focus newspaper in Kigali. |
 Amy Dempsey RI Journalism Intern, Contact FM Radio |
AMY DEMPSEY grew up in a small village in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and graduated from Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature. Now halfway through Carleton’s Master of Journalism program, she is excited about entering the profession during a period of rapid change and uncertainty. Her favourite stories to tell-in any medium-are in the social justice, public health, or arts and culture beats.
Dempsey spent the past six months researching modern-day slavery for her Master’s research project. This brought her to San Francisco, California in May to observe the pilot version of a slavery investigation training program, and to the Lake Volta region of Ghana to see how locals are working to stop child trafficking in the fishing industry. Dempsey is thrilled to be in Rwanda after falling in love with the country from afar several years ago. She will join the team at Contact FM in Kigali. |
 Chloé Fedio RI Journalism Intern, City Radio |
CHLOÉ FEDIO is a master of journalism student at Carleton University. Her foray into journalism began while studying political science in her hometown of Edmonton, Alberta. She has worked as an editor at the campus newspaper at the University of Alberta, as a news assistant at Global Edmonton, and as an intern at the Ottawa Citizen and CBC Newsworld.
She is researching cowpea production in sub-Saharan Africa for her master’s research project. |
 Heather GilberdsRI Communication Intern |
HEATHER GILBERDS is a doctoral student in Communication at Carleton University. Originally from Edmonton, Alberta she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Alberta and a Master of Arts in Communication from Carleton University.She first discovered a passion for grassroots media as a volunteer for the University of Alberta’s campus radio station and is a regular contributor to (Cult)’ure Magazine and CKCU in Ottawa and CJSR in Edmonton. Her research interests lie in the area of communications and development and she has extensive experience with community radio.
She is in Rwanda working as a research assistant with Carleton’s Centre for Media and Transitional Societies. |
 Mariah Griffin-Angus RI Public Policy Intern, PSI Rwanda |
MARIAH GRIFFIN-ANGUS is a fourth year B.PAPM Human Rights major from Carleton University. She grew up in Cobalt, Ontario.Mariah volunteers for an aboriginal education group as well as volunteered in Central America and Asia.
In Rwanda, she will be under-taking a policy writing position for an orphanage that cares for children with HIV/AIDS. The orphanage also does extensive advocacy work. |
 Wanda O’Brien RI Journalism Intern, Rwanda News Agency |
WANDA O’BRIEN experimented with journalism when she launched Thirst, a newsletter for her elementary school, in Grade 7. Although that watering hole soon ran dry, only three editions made it into circulation, O’Brien’s j-bug was not quenched. She is a recent graduate from the Bachelor of Journalism Program at Carleton University, with a double major in journalism and history.
Toronto was home to the Canadian-born Irish citizen until she moved the four and a half hours northeast to Ottawa for her studies.O’Brien is fascinated by people and places. She has a keen interest in the relationships between individuals, communities and nations and how they affect one another. This will be her second journey to Africa as she spent three weeks in the Masai Mara in Kenya in August 2004. She is thrilled to be part of the Rwanda Initiative and the opportunity to intern in Kigali for two months. O’Brien will be interning at the Rwanda News Agency. Previously, she interned at CTV Ottawa and freelanced for Healthwise Ottawa, a magazine in Canada’s capital. |
 Laxmi Parthasarathy RI Communication Intern |
LAXMI PARTHASARATHY has just completed her third year of a double major in Communications and Political Science with a concentration in development studies at Carleton University. In 2007, she founded an organization called MY ROOTS, Malvern Youth – Recognizing Our Opportunities to Succeed.
She is now Editor-in-Chief of the organization’s quarterly, not for profit newspaper. Parthasarathy has been dedicated to empowering at-risk youth through community involvement and has written about her experiences for The Globe and Mail and various community newspapers.She has an interest in communications for development and is looking forward to learning more about this field while in Rwanda. She has worked on an ecological reservation in Quebradas, Costa Rica, participated in Carleton University’s Service Learning Project in Mexico and has served as Co-president of Carleton Journalists for Human Rights. Parthasarathy is a member of the Governor General’s Mentorship Program and a recipient of Youth In Motion’s Top 20 Under 20 award. |
 Martin Soudek RI Public Policy Intern Research and Dialogue for Peace & Aegis Trust |
MARTIN SOUDEK, originally from Halifax, NS, graduated in June from Carleton University’s Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management program with a concentration in International Studies. Martin’s honours research essay focused on China’s strengthening political and economic relations with the states of Central Asia. While in Rwanda, he hopes to learn more about China’s presence in the African Great Lakes region.
In Kigali Martin will be working at the Institute for Research and Dialogue for Peace and the Aegis Trust. This September he will begin his studies in the International Peace and Security MA program at King’s College London, UK. |
PAST TEACHERS 2009
 Phil Carpenter RI Multimedia Teacher, Great Lakes Media Centre |
PHIL CARPENTER is a photo and multimedia journalist at the Montreal Gazette, and has worked as photojournalist for 14 years. He earned a BA in Communications Studies at Concordia University in Montreal, after which he worked as a freelancer photojournalist for a number of companies including AFP, The New York Times and Sipa Press.
He has also taught at Concordia University’s school of journalism. He has won awards for his work including two Society of News Design awards for photo essays on Olympic athletes and their injuries, and swimmers in the FINA games in Montreal. He has also been recognized for stories on he did on breast cancer, lymphedema and the shortage of beds in Quebec long-term care homes. For his second trip to Rwanda, Phil is with Rwanda Initiative teaching multimedia journalism to working journalists at the Great Lakes Media Centre in Kigali.He strongly believes in the power of documentary photo and multimedia journalism to stir social awareness. |
 Manusha Janakiram RI Radio Teacher, Great Lakes Media Centre |
MANUSHA JANAKIRAM currently works as an associate producer with CBC Radio One’s Vancouver afternoon show, On The Coast. After graduating from Concordia’s graduate journalism program in 2007, she won CBC Newsworld’s Joan Donaldson Scholarship.
She focused on national news with CBC Newsworld and CBC Radio Syndication before she moved to Vancouver to try her hand at local current affairs. Born in Canada, but raised in Cameroon, Manusha grew up with radio being the medium of choice. While she respects television and print journalism, she believes radio is the most democratic and she is in awe of its power when done well. With the Rwanda Initiative, she is teaching the first year radio journalism course to practicing journalists as part of a two year program run at the Great Lakes Media Centre in Kigali. She hopes to return in the near future. |
 Daniel Nelson RI Print Teacher, National University of Rwanda & Great Lakes Media Centre |
DANIEL NELSON has worked on and edited newspapers, magazines, news agencies and websites in Africa, Asia and Europe for more than 40 years, specializing in coverage of development issues.He has run training courses for journalists in Accra, Berlin, Colombo, Dar es Salaam, Dhaka, Kampala, Kuala Lumpur, London, Regina and worked as a trainer on newspapers in Africa and Asia.
He is in Rwanda to teach a course on advanced print writing at the National University of Rwanda and a course on environmental reporting at the Great Lakes Media Centre. |
 Jim Rankin RI Photography Teacher, National University of Rwanda |
JIM RANKIN is a reporter-photographer at the Toronto Star. He specializes in investigations and long-term features, and has of late been diving into multimedia. His work has been nominated for five National Newspaper Awards and in 2002 he was part of a team involved in the Michener Award-winning investigative series into race, policing and crime in Toronto.
Born in North Bay, Ont., Jim has degrees in biology (University of Western Ontario) and journalism (University of King’s College, Halifax) and studied photography at Ryerson University. Before joining the Star in 1994, he worked at theNorth Bay Nugget, London Free Press and New Brunswick Telegraph Journal. Rankin joins the Initiative in 2009 to teach photojournalism. |
 Michelle Shephard RI Print Journalism Teacher, National University of Rwanda |
MICHELLE SHEPHARD is the Toronto Star’s National Security Reporter- a beat that began in New York on 9/11 and has taken her among others places to Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and Guantanamo Bay more than a dozen times.
The recipient of Canada’s two top journalism awards for investigative reporting, in March 2008 Shephard published her first book, “Guantanamo’s Child,” which covers the life and trial of Canadian detainee Omar Khadr.Shephard co-taught a second-year print journalism course to 72 National University of Rwanda students in the spring of 2009. |
PAST INTERNS 2009
 Ashley Burke RI Multimedia Intern |
ASHLEY BURKE grew up in Newmarket, Ontario. She’s in her second year of the Masters of Journalism program at Carleton University and holds a bachelor of Media, Information and Techoculture degree and writing certificate from the University of Western Ontario. During her undergraduate career, Ashley got her first taste of journalism interning as a reporter on Roger Television’s daily newscast, First Local.
She later studied in California and ventured to Finland where she interned at an online TV station covering quirky cultural events like the sauna world championships. Since then, she’s carried out an apprenticeship at CTV Ottawa and helped film a TV pilot for Dutch National TV on an international music project in Tonatico, Mexico. In Rwanda, she’ll be working on the initiative’s multimedia and online content. |
 Pawan Deol RI Journalism Intern, City Radio |
PAWAN DEOL for most of her life had aspirations besides journalism. When an instructor once suggested that she was well-suited to a journalism career, she did not take the idea very seriously at all. However, that indifference soon changed. As part of her undergraduate honours degree in Criminology, Deol authored and defended a thesis titled Barely Covered, which looked at the Canadian media’s portrayal of hte genocide in Darfur.She was chosen to present her findings at the Western Society of Criminology’s 2006 Conference in Seattle.This began her career as a journalist.
Deol has completed internships at CTV Vancouver and Channel M. She has also produced several short documentaries with Robot Picnic Productions, a company that she started with two of her colleagues. She is currently working at City Radio in Kigali producing a weekly travel show. She is originally from Osoyoos, British Columbia. |
 Ian Denhez RI Intern, Public Policy |
IAN DENHEZ has just completed his third year of the Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management program at Carleton University. He specializes in International Studies.Although he has lived most of his life in Ottawa, Denhez has a passion for foreign affairs, diplomacy and international cultures.
This is his first time in Africa and he is eager to learn about the Rwandan way of life while trying to learn as much Kinyarwanda as possible in the short time he’s here. |
 Monique Muise RI Journalism Intern, Contact FM Radio |
MONIQUE MUISE, originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Monique has just completed a Master of Journalism degree at Carleton University. For her final thesis project, she produced a 30-minute television documentary about the adoption of Inuit children from Canada’s North.
Monique spent four months as a general assignment reporter at The Chronicle Hearld in Halifax during the summer of 2008, and will be heading to the Montreal Gazette for 10 weeks beginning in early July, 2009. She will be working at Contact FM during her time in Rwanda. |
 Dan Robson RI Journalism Intern, City Radio |
DAN ROBSON has just completed his final term of the Master of Journalism program at Carleton University, where he focused his research on multimedia journalism. He spent last summer working for the Toronto Star as a radio room reporter, and will be returning to the paper as a reporter this July. He has also completed reporting apprenticeships at the Ottawa Citizen and CTV Ottawa.
Dan has a Bachelor of Arts in English literature and a Bachelor of Education from Queen’s University in Kingston.As an undergraduate student, Dan tutored inmates at Kingston Penitentiary, trained new teachers in rural Guyana with CIDA, and worked as an at-risk youth advisor in Dublin, Ireland. He also played varsity hockey for the Queen’s Golden Gaels, and was a sports editor at the Queen’s Journal. While in Rwanda Dan will work for City FM writing news and producing a weekly current affairs show. |
 Steven Ryan RI Public Policy Intern, The Clinton Foundation |
STEVEN RYAN was born and raised in Ottawa. He specialized in public policy and administration at the Arthur Kroeger College with an expected graduation in June.Ryan’s travelled in Africa before, but this is his first time working in the area.One of his main interests is health policy.
He’s hoping to find a placement in a health-related field here in Rwanda.Once he returns to Canada, he’ll be working for Health Canada. |
 Kristen Shane RI Journalism Intern, Blink Magazine |
KRISTEN SHANE just finished her Bachelor of Journalism degree at Carleton University, where she took a double major in journalism and human rights. She came to Ottawa from Kincardine, Ontario, a small town on the edge of Lake Huron.
She spent the summer of 2008 working at a weekly newspaper there and will return to the paper full time after she gets back from Rwanda. Kristen has also apprenticed at The Ottawa Citizen and CBC Radio in Ottawa. In Kigali, she will be working at Blink, a youth-for-youth magazine. |
 Stephanie Smith RI Journalism Intern, Contact FM Radio |
STEPHANIE SMITH is a master of journalism student at Carleton University. A Jamaican-born Canadian, she’s interested in the ways people negotiate and form personal and cultural identity. What she finds most interesting is the way broad social and cultural issues affect people’s everyday lives and conversely how individuals affect their community.
Most of her professional reporting has had a strong local focus.In 2007 and 2008, she worked at two Toronto-based ethnic papers: Canada Extra, a subsidiary of the national Jamaican daily and Share, Canada’s largest ethnic newspaper.In Kigali, Rwanda she’s working at Contact FM radio covering daily news. Smith says it’s interesting to see the ways the story she reported of the black community in Toronto are similar to stories in Rwanda and the surrounding region. |
 Matt Smith RI Public Policy Intern, Inter-Church Foundation |
MATT SMITH, originally from Regina, Saskatchewan is a ‘mature student’ studying Public Affairs and Policy Management at the Arthur Kroeger College. He specializes in development studies and is starting his final year in the fall. After graduating from Carleton he intends to undertake a Masters degree in International Affairs focusing on global civil society.
Prior to his university enrollment he lived in the UK and has been fortunate enough to do a fair amount of traveling. He’s also quite certain he’s the only married intern in the Rwanda Initiative. |
