LSJ CLASS OF 2011

Of those students completing their studies in 2011, Clive Rozario (3M Jan) finished an internship with the music trade magazine IQ before securing a bursary from the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers to help him complete an MA in electronic publishing at City University. He continued to write reviews for sites like AAA Music and Gigwise, as well as his own musical blog, Musical CPR before securing a job with Universal on their music platform uDiscover and taking over the aaamusic website.

Daniele Guido Gessa from the 6M course already had extensive writing experience in Italy when he came to London to study, but the LSJ course allowed him to contribute to a variety of Italian outlets as a 'London correspondent', including Il Fatto Quotidiano, TM News and Agenzia Giornalistica Italia. In 2016 he returned to Italy to work as a TV journalist for Radiotelevisione Italiana, based in the Potenza area (above, bottom).

Hal Hodson (6M Sep 2010) had work published in The Guardian, Independent and the magazine Cosmos before securing a reporter's job with Information Age, edited by another former LSJ student, Pete Swabey.  In 2012 he was appointed technology reporter for New Scientist, based in Boston, and in 2016 became technology correspondent for The Economist. Nia Charpentier has been working for Sublime magazine and acting as arts and culture co-ordinator for Shoreditch radio.
From the 9M Sep 2010 class, Lucia Psenakova has had pieces published in the Hamstead and Highgate Express, Camden Private Tenant magazine and the Early Years Educator, while Luca Foschi returned to Italy where he entered a collaboration with a Sardinian newspaper to write for the cultural pages as a freelance. Following a course in war reporting in Rome he joined the Italian army in Lebanon and Afghanistan as an embedded journalist, writing for the Corriere della Sera, before freelancing from Beirut for a variety of titles (foschiluca.com).

From the 6M January course, Gabriele Perrone (pictured above, top) returned to Milan and within two months had landed a job as a full-time writer for a new Italian website, www.lettera43.it. Sharp-eyed fellow students may have also spotted his byline on some sports stories in The Independent during his short internship in London.

Meanwhile Emily Overy from the 3M September course was appointed editor of Vine magazine in Sevenoaks. In 2015 she was appointed lifestyle editor at thomson.co.uk, covering Thomson and First Choice holidays.

Angus McNeice from the 9M January course was appointed deputy editor of the Santiago Times in Chile after interning at the newspaper. 

In 2013 he wrote: "I'm absolutely loving it. It's incredibly long hours since we are such a small team, but we cover national news and every day is interesting, with the presidential elections coming up.

"I hung around writing for them far past my internship, so persistence - and of course the valuable skills I gained at the LSJ - paid off." 
He went on to edit the Santiago Times before becoming Europe correspondent for China Daily UK. 

From the same course Max Mueller won a place in the freelance writers' pool for an engineering trade publisher and Ann Morgan, a freelance sub-editor at The Guardian, was approached by a couple of literary agents interested in her Year of Reading the World blog, ayearofreadingtheworld.com. A book describing her literary adventures was published in the UK and America in 2015. George Nelson was heading to America for an internship with the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

LSJ CLASS OF 2010

Perhaps the single most ambitious project undertaken by a student in 2010 was the 40,000-mile, four-year, round-the-world bike trek undertaken by Charlie Walker from the 3M Sep 2009 class. Charlie started working for the Daily Express travel desk before embarking on his epic journey in July 2010, since when he has continued to chronicle his exploits on charliewalkerexplore.co.uk.

Of the 3M January class, Robbie Blakeley departed for Brazil, where he contributed sports stories to the Rio Times, while Niamh Griffin became the latest in a long succession of LSJ students to head west to Bristol as a features writer for South West News and Sport. Robbie was later appointed senior sports reporter for the Rio Times and Niamh moved to IPC Media as a senior features writer in 2011.

Photographer Kate Shortt made a couple of trips to the Burma/China border on a sustainability project before undertaking another project in Mongolia, while Simon Willmore interned at Canary Wharf with the online travel magazine travelbite.co.uk.

Within a month of graduating he was embarking on his first press trip, a five-day jaunt to Tunisia, including a night in the desert with a Bedouin community. He later went on to become a freelance contributor for Absolute Publishing, the Sunday Times and Travel Daily Media, as well as being a senior online content editor for Groupon.

Adam Leach (3M April 2010) secured an internship with Redactive publishing on Supply Management magazine which led to a staff job, while Sabine Klensch became an account manager for a PR agency, as well as freelancing for a German online business finance and recruitment publication.

Richard Silk works as a financial journalist specialising in private equity and renewable energy, Lorenzo Spoerry works for business and financial information specialists SNL Financial, and Judit Szilak returned to Hungary to finish her master's degree, where she has been contributing to the prestigious online news site index.hu.

Finishing at the same time were Luca Rosso and Claudia Suarez-Gonalez from the 9m Sep 2009 course, who both gained positions with Global Blue, Luca as an assistant digital production editor and Claudia as a project manager.

From the 6M January class, Peter Firth undertook an internship with the lifestyle news network LS:N Global, before securing a staff writer's job there.

From the 9M Jan 2010 course, Simone Martufi returned Cape Town where she started writing for an online site coaching people about getting jobs on cruise liners. She has since been commissioned to write an e-book on the subject, as well as becoming online co-ordinator for a youth entertainment website and securing a Thursday slot on an online radio station dealing with youth issues.

Of the 3M Sep 2010 class, Steve Dew-Jones started work for a council-run paper before it closed, briefly working for a trio of B2B magazines in the healthcare industry before moving to Incisive Media, where he writes about finance technology. From the same class, Eleonora Corsini works in Florence, promoting the European Robert F Kennedy Journalism awards at the RFK Centre there.

LSJ CLASS OF 2009

With cutbacks and layoffs being announced across the industry, 2009 was a tough year for anyone trying to launch their media career.

From the 3M January students, Muriel Oatham gained a maternity cover position as staff writer for Fund Strategy magazine and Johanna McWeeney completed an extended work experience placement for International Live Music Magazine, as well as contributing freelance items to Music Teacher and Classical Music magazines.

Of the 3M April students, Laura Saunter followed up the course with internships in the fashion departments of thelondonpaper, Daily Express, Daily Rubbish (for London Fashion Week) and The Guardian, while Pippa Woodhead interned at Banipal, a magazine of modern Arabic literature and the Mail online, and Marta Karcz pursued her interest in food journalism with an internship at The Restaurant Magazine, a trade publication based in Crawley.

Sandra Capitano returned to her job in Italy as area manager for an Italian film company, where she now writes features and a column for the film website filmakersmagazine.it and Michelle Davies has written food reviews for the website foodepedia. Victor Burnett is a communications manager for a renewable energy company.

Of the September 3M students, Claire Robinson is working for a Manchester PR firm, Ryan Bratcher joined the financial publication Euroweek as a trainee reporter and Charlie Walker joined the travel desk of the Daily Express, following a successful internship, prior to embarking on his epic 40,000-mile bicycle adventure around the world, starting in July 2010. See www.charliewalkerexplore.co.uk).

9M September students Claudia Gonzalez and Luca Rosso both completed internships at Global Blue which led to full-time posts, Claudia as a project manager and Luca as an assistant digital production editor.

The picture shows some of the 6M January class, who completed the course in July.

LSJ CLASS OF 2008

The worsening economic climate during the year made it a tough time for job hunters, but that didn't prevent many of the January three-monthers from making it into the workplace in record time.

Lucy Miles worked as a freelance in London before returning to her native New Zealand and Melissa Mahtani resumed her corporate communications broadcasting job at the end of the course, later moving to France 24 in Paris as a news producer. Osian ap Garth picked up a reporting job for an IT magazine, Craig McGlashan landed a reporting job with Adfero, later becoming a desk head there, before moving on to 2i Media, a finance website and magazine and becoming deputy editor of Global Securities Lending, while Ian Dunt was appointed online editor at politics.co.uk.

Giovanni Legorano (above, bottom) started work for Global Pensions magazine, part of Incisive Media, before returning to Milan to work for the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones newswires, while Anna Brown joined Newsquest in south London as a sub-editor, working on a range of titles from the Cheam head office and later becoming a senior sub there.

The nine-monthers who started at the same time (above, top) didn't finish until October, but that didn't stop Ros Donald from rapidly starting work as a reporter for Global Competition Review and Laura Aylett being appointed a press officer for the Royal College of Nursing.

Of the April three-monthers, Alexandra Bridgwater now works in beauty PR and Jaimie Kaffash was appointed deputy chief sub-editor of Public Finance magazine, while Anna Kuk is a reporter for the BBC Russian Service in Moscow. Jaimie later moved to Accountancy Age as a reporter before becoming a senior reporter/deputy news editor at the medical magazine Pulse, where he was later promoted to news editor. Emanuele Norsa returned to London from Italy in 2010 to become a business reporter for Steel Business Briefing, covering Spain, Portugal and Greece.

Of the January six-monthers, Colombe Verges followed in the footsteps of Osian ap Garth (above) and went to work for the Uxbridge-based trade publication IT Europa, while David Cardenas returned to Vienna to take up an internship with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Colombe moved from IT Europa in 2010 to work for a specialist publishing house in India, working on luxury arts and culture books, but said of her time at the fortnightly IT business publication: "The job is a journalist job, that involves writing news stories, interviews and features. It involves a lot of travel as well - in the last two years, I have been to Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans, Copenhagen, Milan, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Prague and Stockholm.

"It is a great job for someone who wants to start in journalism, as it is a small editorial team (we're three journalists, including our editor), and so the job covers all the basic work of a journalist, from finding interesting ideas for stories, dealing with the PR side, building and maintaining good relationships with them and the people interviewed, interviewing plenty of main characters in the IT world, updating the website, laying out the pages on the written publication using In-Design." She has since moved to Brazil, where she is pursuing a freelance career in Sao Paulo.

The September three-monthers hit the jobs market just as the credit crunch began to bite in earnest, but Kayley Edwards got a job as a marketing writer with a data management company in Guildford and Samantha Leese turned an internship with Time Out in Hong Kong into a staff job, while Fred Palley interned with IPC media and worked as a freelance for sport.co.uk and mirrorfootball.co.uk before becoming deputy editor at The Exchange, UK editor for GX magazine and UK content and promotions manager for Sportingbet. 

Samantha stayed at Time Out for just under a year before going freelance at the end of 2009 when she was approached by CNN Travel to contribute to their website. Based in Hong Kong, she has had pieces published in Time, The Spectator and covers Asia-Pacific lifestyle stories for the agency AFP, as well as writing a books column for the fashion and lifestyle glossy Prestige and acting as features editor for Glass's magazine. In 2013 she was contemplating a Master of Fine Arts degree in Hong Kong and working with a literary agent on her first novel/short story collection.  

LSJ CLASS OF 2007

Contacts from past courses can be helpful in landing full-time jobs as well as work experience placements - and often former students will contact the school when they become aware of vacancies or move on to new careers themselves.

That may be one of the reasons why there are pockets of LSJ students scattered around the country on different magazines, agencies and trade publications, or why those finishing the course follow in the footsteps of former students. A contributing factor, of course, is that editors impressed with past recruits are likely to contact the school when a future vacancy occurs.

Whatever the reasons, a number of 2007 students ended up working alongside familiar faces from past LSJ courses. Jenny Southan from the three-month April course (above) went as a sub-editor to Business Traveller, where Mark Caswell is online editor (see Class of 2005), Kim Willis went to South West News as a features writer, following in the footsteps of Nicola Skinner (2005) and Rupert Smith (2002) and Paul Goatman, from the September three-monthers, after work experience placements at the Derby Evening Post and Birmingham Post and Mail, joined the growing LSJ team at the Adfero newswire agency, working out of the Leeds office.

Kim and Nicola branched out to launch their own agency in Bristol in 2008, Phoenix Features. From the same course, Cheryl Gallagher moved as a Spanish-speaker researcher and writer to Foresight News and Claudia Giampietri worked for AsiaNews in Rome before getting married and moving to Uganda, where she works as a freelance for the monthly magazine African Woman and has been commissioned to write a biography.

Nataliya Vasilyeva continued to freelance for the Moscow Times before landing a business reporting role with the Moscow bureau of AP, while Tom Marchbanks has worked for the BBC at Panorama, BBC News, Crimewatch, Question Time and Watchdog. Robyn Ashman and Adam English both work for the Launch Group PR agency in Soho.

From Jenny's course, Kwok Wan became assistant editor of Industrial Minerals, based in the City, before joining Reuters as an energy correspondent, while Natasha von Geldern has been editor of travelbite.co.uk for a number of years.

Of the January nine-monthers, Jonathan Harvey became a researcher/producer with the Today programme on Radio 4, Nova Maxwell worked for Adfero before becoming an online sub-editor for the National Archives at Kew and Rachel Bull joined the National Magazine Company. Sonam Mishra had her first book, 9 to 5 Food, published in 2010.

From the January six-monthers, Salvatore Landolina is a football journalist covering the Italian leagues for the football website goal.com while freelancing for Setanta Sports News. He was appointed news manager of goal.com in 2009. From the three-monthers starting at the same time, Sarah Charlton gained an internship with CNN before landing a job with ITV Local, the regional online web video service.

Of Sarah's coursemates, David Mitchell is a sub-editor on Shooting Times and Country magazine, Peter Salisbury worked for ICIS, the global chemical industry news feed, before moving to the Middle East Economic Digest in Dubai, Neil Sheppard works for a pharmaceuticals B2B based in Hammersmith and Laura Stavro-Beauchamp joined Mortgage Strategy magazine before moving to dealReporter, one of the FT's news services.

Among the September nine-monthers, Andre Paino works for the Brazilian broadcaster SBT and Vanessa Stevens is press officer for the European Council on Foreign Relations.
From the September six-monthers, Sarah Fisher got a job with the Pepperdine University PR team back home in the States (and has a web presence on nuggetoftruth at wordpress.com) while Mark Sansom did some work experience at an Essex paper for some months before joining the Square Meal magazine restaurant and lifestyle guide, where he later became a features writer and news and online editor.  In 2011 he moved to Men's Health magazine, where he is deputy features editor, working alongside features editor and fellow LSJ student Dave Morton (2006).

LSJ CLASS OF 2006

Some career paths into journalism are more unusual than others, and none more so than that of Sarah Grant (above), who trained as an optician before enrolling on the LSJ course - and emerged as a radio journalist. Her story is one of the case studies highlighted on the school's main website, although having launched her career at Stray FM in Yorkshire, working as duty editor, reporter and presenter for the local radio station, she became deputy news editor for 14 months before moving to Canada, working for the news talk station CFRA in Ottawa. After five years in Ottawa, Sarah moved to Toronto, where she currently works on CBC’s national morning show as well as filling in as a writer on Entertainment Tonight Canada. 

Of Sarah's colleagues on the January three-month course, Gillian Ferguson went to Heat magazine, Natalia Gameson writes and property and interior design for a number of property publications and James Nye joined the internet news agency Adfero.

Claire McGreal completed an internship with the BBC and work experience at RTE before embarking on a master's degree in journalism in Dublin, and went on to become a news anchor and reporter for Dublin's Q102 radio station, while Leo Oldfield had a spell at Conde Nast before moving to Entertainment News. Rita di Antonia edits a data compliance website in London and Dave Morton was appointed features editor of Men's Health magazine.

Of the nine-monthers starting at the same time, Hal Brown became a staff journalist on Canal Boat magazine, Rachel Clode landed an internship at The Ecologist, Melissa Davis became a press officer for The Law Society and Zita Stockbridge pursued a career in PR and freelance writing.

From the January six-monthers, Danny Brogan became reviews editor of the consumer magazine Mobile Choice, Deborah James became a freelance online copywriter and journalist, Julia Crosfield went to Wellington in New Zealand as a communications adviser for the Ministry for the Environment and Sohini Gogel completed an internship in New York with the French newspaper France-Amerique before returning to Paris to work for an arts website and freelance for different French and English magazines. Chloe McCloskey became publishing manager of culture and leisure magazine Le Cool, Claire Henderson worked on a music magazine in London before moving to Scotland as a sub-editor for The Sunday Post, Angelo Pecci moved to an advertising and marketing company in Italy, Fiona Shield started freelancing full-time for Time Out in London and Anaita Vazifdar is a sub-editor for a contract publishing house in Mumbai.

After working as a writer and sub-editor for Time Out, Fiona became a freelance reporter for The Times and in 2007 was approached by a new publishing house to launch a portfolio of magazines and websites with celebrity guest editors. In 2011 she moved to Sydney to sub, proof and write for the Masterchef magazine, and was later contracted by Universal magazines there to edit a portfolio of home and interiors magazines. After launching a food a lifestyle print magazine in 2012 she has continued to work in Sydney, managing the editorial, production and design of a new entrepeneurial magazine, The Collective. 
From the May three-month course, Isabel Andrews started work with an arts magazine, Apollo, while Suemay Oram has been working on TV documentaries, mainly for the Discovery Channel.

September three-monthers headed to a range of exotic destinations, with Tim Alper moving to Korea to work for a soccer website in Seoul, where he became editor of the IT Times in 2008 and Adam Dawson bound for Dubai, where he became assistant editor of a couple of trade magazines. Tim went on to become the first non-Korean working as a producer in the Korean broadcast industry before moving on in 2012 to DesignHouse, where he is editor of Korean Air's in-flight magazine, Morning Calm.

Suzanne Fenton landed a job as news anchor for Press TV, a new satellite TV channel based in Iran, before moving to Dubai as business reporter for the Gulf News and senior editor/features writer for a Time Out-style magazine called fyi Dubai. In 2012 she started working for mergermarket.com as a freelance journalist, still based in Dubai.

Sevil Kucukkosum returned to Turkey as diplomatic correspondent for the Aksam daily paper, while closer to home James Masters moved to Radio London and Clementine Wallop works for the Waterloo-based specialist trade publication Metal Bulletin. Josh Jones went on to become UK music editor for Red Bull.

Of the September nine-month class, Will Hurrell joined Broadcast Monthly and Janis Lee won a place on the fast-track news sub-editing course run by the Daily Mail, training with the Press Association and Oxford Mail before getting a job on the Mail's news subbing desk. Gemma Padley has contributed music reviews to the BBC music website, among others, and worked as a features writer for Amateur Photographer magazine, where she was later appointed features editor.

Meanwhile from the six-monthers starting at the same time, Patricia Flanagan gained a journalism traineeship with the BBC World Service and Florence Viala works as a news co-ordinator for CNBC Europe in Paris.

LSJ CLASS OF 2005

From Afghanistan to New Zealand and from glossy magazines to the United Nations, LSJ students fanned out across the globe in 2005, putting their skills to good use in the world of PR and corporate communications as well as print and broadcast journalism.

As online editor of Business Traveller magazine, Mark Caswell went on to mentor many students on work experience placements with the magazine before setting up his own business in 2012. Fellow May three-monther Paul Fleckney joined the South London Guardian group as an arts and leisure reporter, as well as sub-editing the leisure section of the Richmond and Twickenham Times, while Amanda Jordan went to Bloomberg as an energy editor.

Helen Kaye worked for the Funday Times after finishing the course, switching to features writing for a trade magazine after she was made redundant. She then moved to the BBC, working on children's websites, before becoming online editor of mydeco.com.

Meanwhile three-monthers from the January course making their mark around the world include Ji Quandt (Juliet) Chan, who went to head up the corporate communications department for a private university college in Malaysia, and Penny Hollings, who worked with The Politics Show and for Channel 4 before becoming a media relations officer for Christian Solidarity.

Candice Krieger started reporting shifts for the Daily Express before moving to the Jewish Chronicle as business and people editor, while Ollie McGhie became features editor of Classical Guitar magazine and Ed Vinales went to Merger Market magazine as a business journalist.

Sam Munnery started work as a trainee reporter for the Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser before moving to the sports desk, working for a range of titles, while Malcolm Weir landed a job with a poker website, covering news and tournaments.

Rajesh Talwar (above, bottom), who has published a number of fiction and non-fiction books and has had reports published in a variety of national papers, went to Afghanistan as a legal affairs officer with the United Nations mission.

David Gavan from the six-month January course moved to Ireland, where in 2013 he helped to launch a new arts and literary journal, Gorse.

Of the nine-monthers also starting in January, Joanne Hebblewhite became a business writer/sub or Free Features, which provides a range of editorial articles to business, trade and specialist publications, while persistence paid off for Laura Stott (above, top) when she landed a fashion writing job for The Sun.

Nine-monthers in the September class included Aisling Boyle, who went on to contribute a range of articles on food and travel matters to magazines like the Irish Food and Wine magazine, and Toyosi Oshodi, who is based in Nigeria and worked for a lifestyle magazine before joining 234next Timbuktu as an online reporter.

Of the six-monthers starting at the same time, Ila Halai became a financial reporter for the Infrastructure Journal and Nicola Skinner moved to Bristol to join the features team of the South West News agency, before teaming up with Kim Willis (LSJ 2008) to launch their own agency in Bristol, Phoenix Features.

From the large September three-month class, Sam Alexandroni went to The New Statesman, Karin Brantestrom works for a trade magazine in Stockholm and Joel Ford became a reporter on the quaintly named Bay of Plenty Times in New Zealand.

Sorcha Griffith returned to Dublin, where she covers murder, rape and other serious trials for a couple of agencies and shifts for the Mirror, while Hynam (Joe) Kendall worked for the London Review before moving to Abu Dhabi to work as a features writer for the Dubai lifestyle glossy Inside Out - later returning to London to work for the actress Sienna Miller.

Joe Mortimer went to the Haslemere Herald before being offered a job in Dubai as assistant editor of Arabian Travel News, while Sarah Neish gained work experience at Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Grazia and Woman & Home before landing an internship and subsequent job at Psychologies magazine.

Estelle Phillips worked as a reporter for a weekly paper in Somerset before returning to teaching, Alexa Rowe is a broadcast journalist for Guernsey's commercial radio station, Island FM, Paul Snell writes for Supply Management magazine, part of the Redactive media group, in the City and Philip Smith became a freelance writer on financial and accounting matters, contributing to Accountancy, Accountancy Age and the national press.

After a variety of jobs, in August 2009 Ben Duckworth became editor of Total Politics magazine.

LSJ CLASS OF 2004

The 2004 crop of Maida Vale students did a great job of demonstrating just how varied career paths can be - from the gossip columns of the nationals to the most unlikely trade publications, and from the heart of London to lonely outposts on every continent.

Emily Maddick was one of a number of students to make the nationals in 2004, initially working on the Mail on Sunday diary as well as doing freelance PR work and occasional shifts for Closer magazine. She was a showbusiness reporter with the MoS before moving to Grazia, where she became a senior news reporter and later news editor.

Of the other three-monthers on her course in September, Fergus Bisset became a contributing editor to Golf Monthly magazine, Naomi Cooper became press officer for a Welsh MP, Robin Mackrill became a freelance specialising in financial journalism and Paul McMillan joined Money Marketing, later becoming the paper's online editor and, more recently, news editor.

Laura Mossman specialises in financial publishing, while Natalie Tuck joined the editorial team of a contract publishing house in King's Cross and James Williams worked at Traveller magazine and was assistant editor of The Traveller's Handbook before becoming web editor of Stamfords, the world's largest map and travel bookstore. He also worked as online editor at Wexas Travel before becoming publications manager for Cox & Kings and deputy editor of Compass magazine. 

Of the six-monthers who started at the same time, Benjamin Davies started an internship with the paper Sportsfan and got subbing shifts on the sports desk of the Daily Mail. He freelanced at the Mail before moving on to a full-time sub-editing post with Practical Motorhome, part of the Haymarket group.

Clemence de Cambourg worked for a French magazine in London before returning to France to work for a Paris-based design gallery. She went on to become director assistant of a documentary-making TV company, as well as being in charge of the exhibition section of a French culture website.

Nick Hughes joined the Informa Group working on trade publications before becoming editor of Chocolate and Confectionery International, based in Tunbridge Wells.

Jonathan Landi went to work for a web cuttings bureau while at the same time contributing rugby copy to a variety of titles, from the Enfield Independent and Enfield Gazette to Rugby World, Rugby Times, Everyone's A Winner magazine, the Herts Advertiser and the St Albans Observer.

Margaret Latto became communications manager for Homes for Haringey, producing all internal and external communications for the organisation, which manages Haringey's housing.

Simone Topolski (above, top) worked for Time Out and gained work experience at Wanderlust, Conde Nast and the Intelligent Traveller magazine. After freelancing work for Conde Nast she began contributing to STA travel as a freelance travel editor, while reviewing books for thehotelguru.com. In 2007 she headed to Mexico to review hotels for the website and research features. She freelanced for a variety of magazines and websites, based in London and specialising in travel, before becoming restaurant development manager for the EMEA countries for Hilton Worldwide.

From the same course, Fernando Vasquez joined Red pepper magazine as a researcher/reporter. Of the nine-monthers starting in September, James Arneill returned to Belgium after the course to complete a master's degree in European legal studies, later returning to London as a lawyer in the government legal service.

Charlie Ghagan landed a job as TV features writer for TV Plus magazine, which runs on ITV and Channel 4 teletext, with many of his celebrity stories being picked up by papers like The Sun and Metro. He became a sub-editor on Sunday Mirror sport as well as assistant production editor at What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision (Haymarket Publications) and was appointed production editor of FourFourTwo magazine in 2010.

Anahi Medina is based in Buenos Aires, where she gained work experience at the BBC before working on radio packages for BBC mundo and carrying out research for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Neil Nunes (above, bottom) works for the BBC World Service and Radio 4, while Innes Weir started contributing regular features to the dance music magazine M8, as well as sub-editing for Teletext.

Daniel Storey gained a job as a staff writer for HotDog film magazine before moving to MTV as film/movie researcher for the show Screen. He is now a freelance producer working with companies like MTV and Sky Movies.

Earlier in the year, students on the three-month course were equally industrious. Some moved to radio - Thomas Benson working for 106.2 Heart FM and Pollyanna Whitehouse for The Bear 102FM.

Others headed further afield, including Paul Charles, who became editor of Cayman Net News, a daily paper in the Cayman Islands, and Rakiya Farah, who went to work for the press department of Human Rights Watch. Philip McCormac went to the lifestyle section of Grazia magazine, Susanne Shields to Steel Business Briefing, an online news publication covering the international steel and raw materials industry, Robert Songer became deputy editor of Foodnews for the Agra Informer group and Pete Swabey went on to become a senior writer at Information Age and editor of the website.

Of the three-monthers starting the course in January, John Atkin became a sports journalist for UEFA.com, Robert Greenfield went to work as a feature writer for Golf Punk magazine, Xiaowei Li became a reporter for China Daily and Charmeyne McCollin became a sub-editor for All Out Cricket magazine.

James Neish is a senior broadcast journalist with Gibraltar Broadcasting who has also worked for Sky News, Channel TV and the BBC. Alice Olins went to The Times as a fashion writer and Bobby Pathak, an architect in his former life, started sub-editing for Soap Life magazine before landing regular reporting shifts on The Mirror. Bobby returned to his home town of Edinburgh to cover the festival for the Evening News and Scotland on Sunday before coming back to London working for a small news agency - which in turn led to a big broadcasting break, including a high-profile documentary for Channel 4's Dispatches.

James Peene became a motoring journalist with Classic Car weekly - later being appointed editor of two specialist VW titles for the IPC/Time Warner group - Frances Cherry was a publishing executive with Health Service Journal, Amanda Lennon an editorial assistant for Media Week and Nick de Semlyen a sub-editor with Empire magazine. Ed Harris went to Africa as a correspondent for the BBC, Reuters and IRN.

LSJ CLASS OF 2003

The LSJ's move to Maida Vale may have heralded a brave new world in terms of teaching facilities - and a pleasant little courtyard which is so appealing in the spring and summer - but sadly so many emails and mobile numbers have changed that keeping track of the 2003 classes has been particularly hard.
There are exceptions, fortunately - like Sarah Maxwell from the 9M September group who went on to become one of the first of many students to work for the small but friendly team at Business Traveller, still largely staffed by former students.
Sarah herself has since moved to Suffolk and now works with the communications team at the health watchdog NICE, although she still keeps in touch with her erstwhile colleagues at BT.
Kate Adair from the three-monthers went to Information Age as a staff writer before joining the BBC World Service as a radio producer/researcher, while the wonders of the internet have made it rather easier to keep track of Karen Budell (above) from the January three-month class, who became nightlife producer and bar and clubs editor for Metromix after returning to her native Chicago.
Another young lady returning to America was Sara Dadlani - now Sadhwani - who pursued a career in NGO advocacy, management and press relations as Immigrant Rights Project Director for the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles.
Heading off to the other side of the world was Sebastian Mackenzie-Wilson who, after gaining a staff job as a research on The Times, then moved to Australia. He has since returned to the UK where he worked as a freelance writer before pursuing an unrelated business venture.
Since 2003 the school has become rather more proactive at trying to keep in touch with former students, but of course tutors remember the names and faces, so updates from our missing classes are always welcome!

LSJ CLASS OF 2002

The LSJ's old base at Upbrook Mews in Paddington may have been a little cramped, but many students nonetheless appeared to view it with genuine affection.

Perhaps it was the slightly quaint mews setting or the hospitality and proximity of the nearby Cleveland Arms which accounted for its appeal, but efforts to host lessons in more ostentatious surroundings like the lecture theatres at Birkbeck or conference suite at the Lancaster Hotel always met with mixed reviews.
But however modest the facilities at Upbrook, 2002 was a memorable year for a variety of reasons.
Despite connections with the school dating back to the mid-1990s, January marked my first outing as a freelance lecturer after two years as editorial training manager with the Western Mail and Echo in Cardiff, joining familiar stalwarts of the attendance course like Terry McMahon and Carole Dwyer.
My arrival coincided with significant changes in the course content and structure too, including the expansion of the media law syllabus.
But perhaps most significant was the calibre and enthusiasm of the students, many of whom have gone on to work for the national press and international titles.
Sadly, changing email addresses and mobile phone numbers have made it harder to keep in touch with many of the 2002 team, so it would be great to hear from anyone not mentioned here, along with any corrections if my spelling of names or lapses in memory introduce any inaccuracies.
Since many students have distinctive names, Google is helpful in tracking down familiar faces, but in the interests of accuracy and protecting people's privacy it seems fairest only to mention those who have been in direct contact or have independently mentioned their LSJ background - even though the names from that mews classroom six years ago are peppered across the web, from Italy and Greece to Nigeria and Afghanistan, as deputy editors and TV reporters, bloggers and foreign correspondents and PR people.
The 6M September group proved one of the most sociable frequenters of Paddington hostelries and still keep in touch, despite being spread around the globe. Irene Zevallos returned to her native Peru, Daniela Bonetto launched an interiors magazine in Cairo before launching her company, DB Communications, in 2008, and Charles Bobe (above, bottom) works as a journalist and TV director in Paris.
Emily Manson moved from the Richmond and Twickenham Times to become deputy features editor and later content editor of Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine, where she worked for five years before pursuing a freelance career, while Femke van Iperen, a freelance broadcaster from Holland, regularly returns to the school to undertake TV training for the LSJ's postgrad students. 'Taz' from Afghanistan in now based in London as a freelance covering Afghanistan and neighbouring countries.
Ali Ismail became a regular contributor to the Bangla Mirror newspaper in East London, moving on to become a sub-editor there, and Sheridan Bird is a full-time staff writer for Champions, the official magazine of the Champions League, and freelances for FourFourTwo, FA Cup Final programmes, England programmes and Manchester United programmes.
Among the three-monthers that year were Dean Wilson (above top), who joined the sports agency Hayters before landing his dream job as cricket correspondent for the Mirror, and Vicky Ophield, who went on to become a publisher with Informa Law. She moved to Kelsey Publishing as a digital publisher in 2013.
Fiona Govan worked regular reporting shifts for the Sunday telegraph for two years before becoming the Madrid-based correspondent for both the Sunday and Daily Telegraph. She later moved to The Local in Spain as editor.
Andy Tristem worked for two years at the Wood and Vale paper before joining the Western Gazette, Sunday Express and later the Sunday Times. He also worked in PR before publishing his first work of fiction in 2016 - An Incidental Murder.
Paddy Smith cut his teeth reporting for the Bristol Observer before moving to Dubai as deputy features editor of a lifestyle magazine. He went on to become editor of Stuff in Dubai - one of at least half a dozen former students attracted by the region's publishing boom in recent years, although he later returned to London to specialise as a freelance technology writer, becoming the online editor for Stuff in the UK before returning to freelance work.
Eoin Brophy is a leading strategic communications consultant to the European financial services industry, while Louise Davies worked as a reporter in the Liverpool Echo before becoming business editor of the Lancashire Evening Post and Rupert Smith joined the features writing team with the South West News agency in Bristol. He went on to become head of communications for the Trinity Mirror newspaper group.
Ed Davie joined the South Wales Argus as a news reporter before becoming a political correspondent for Newsquest, covering the Welsh Assembly for a number of papers. In 2004 he returned to London to work for Dods as a political correspondent, later joining the GPs' magazine BMA News as a senior news writer. In 2010 he was elected to Lambeth Council, where he chairs the health and adult social care scrutiny committee, while continuing to write for a number of publications, including a Guardian blog, and acting as communications manager for a mental health charity.
It's good to see faces who shared the same experiences of a cramped mews classroom in Bayswater making a name for themselves around the world, from the Fleet Street nationals to promoted posts on every continent.
When Paddy gained his editorship at the gadget magazine he was the first to admit it felt a little strange to be interviewing trainees for jobs so soon after qualifying himself. Dean's first day at the Mirror was spent on a plane bound for Australia to cover the Ashes - and Fiona's move to Madrid meant that she soon found herself bound for Portugal to cover the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
For tutors one of the biggest rewards is the sheer range of opportunities the business offers, from niche specialist publishing to sports reporting, production journalism and PR - and when that means the cycle turning full circle, or someone landing that "dream" posting, and fulfilling ambitions they once discussed over a pint in a Bayswater boozer, it's rather nice to share in the buzz...

LSJ SUMMER SCHOOL

No one should think that spending a long hot August on an intensive journalism training course is an easy option, but the LSJ's Summer School is a popular tradition, ideal for university students wanting to get an early taste of journalism as a career, for mature students considering a change in career, and for students from abroad wanting to consolidate their existing writing and language skills.

In recent years numbers have ranged from 30 to 50, with students coming from all over Europe and beyond, from Australia and New Zealand, Turkey, Ukraine, Canada, 
Japan, India and Bangladesh. 
Those taking part in the month-long series of lectures and practical assignments range from experienced journalists wanting to improve their English to university students seeking their first practical experience of writing for publication.
Typically, ages range from 19 to 50-plus and include many English students as well as those hailing from Beirut to South America, from Scandinavia to Romania.
From the 2008 summer school, for example, some were experienced writers and broadcasters like Delia Panait from Romania, determined to improve their English and study UK journalism in action, while others were looking for a change in career - like Pippa Mettawa who went on to broadcast radio news in Muscat.
A few, like Deni Stephens and Guilia Tarditi, subsequently returned to study more intensive journalism courses, while Roberta Facchinetti was hoping to pass on some of her new skills as a lecturer in journalism herself in Verona.
Past courses have also proved that age and/or lack of experience are no barrier to getting into print if the talent is there - as when, the previous year, Durham university student Lea Morpurgo got her gap-year article published in the Telegraph while she was on the course - and fellow Durham student Peter Bolton went on to complete internships with newspapers in Germany and Spain before working for a congressman in Washington for four months.

Sometimes the experience can have a more dramatic impact on delegates' job prospects, as Sera de Vor (2009) explains her email below about landing a job with TRT Turk.

From the same year, Ana Franca went to Macau to work for a Portuguese paper there, while Natalie Fox from Beirut (2008) went on to work as travel editor at Eat Me magazine.

Cagil Kasapoglu (2010), another Turkish journalist, wrote a few weeks after attending the summer school to say she was taking up a full-time position as a foreign news journalist with CNN Turk, based in Istanbul. She later joined Radikal, the Turkish daily paper, before getting a job in London as a broadcast journalist with the BBC's Turkish service. 
Diletta Paoletti (2011) returned to the University of Perugia in Italy, where she has been involved in a project focusedon better communication about European Union issues. As well as attending Perugia’s International Journalism Festival in 2012 as a guest speaker, she has had articles published in local newspapers and online news sites like Corriere dell’ Umbria and Umbria 24, and national outlets like Libertà e Giustizia and L’Espresso, the weekly magazine from the editorial group producing La Repubblica, one of Italy’s foremost quality papers.
She wrote: “It was my first journalism course, so it gave me some skills, abilities and expertise that I did not have before (style, stories, blogging and so on).
“The experience at the LSJ has been very important for me. Back home, in September I started my blog, which gave me the opportunity not only to write, but to get noticed.”But perhaps the last word should go to Sera de Vor from the 2009 summer school whose excited email summed up the possibilities arising from a few weeks of intensive study in London.
She wrote: “Not sure if you’re going to remember me, but I’m the one with the curly orange hair and a smile plastered on her face at all times. You may remember me sitting outside on the ground and crying after the lunch we had on the last day. I had a hard time leaving because I fell in love with the LSJ and I still miss my time in London dearly.
“A few days ago I was placing an order at Starbucks when the barista asked me what I do for a living. I replied without thinking, ‘I’m a journalist’. It took me a few seconds to realise that I had just said out loud, for the first time in my life, the one sentence I had been waiting to say since I was 13.
“The very next thing that came to my mind was the LSJ. Which brings me to this moment – me, at my desk at work, writing you an email updating you on my life.
“On arriving home, I spent a month sitting on my couch and crying myself to sleep at night because I missed London too much. One day I got a call from a producer at a TV station who wanted my services for the day – I’m a freelance make-up artist. The producer was polite and tried to avoid an awkward silence with friendly chit-chat.
“She asked me if I was a student. ‘I have a BA in American Culture and Literature,’ I said. ‘Oh, and I just finished a programme at the London School of Journalism.’ Her eyes lit up like fireflies. I was offered a job on the spot.
“I’ve been working here for over three months now and I couldn’t be happier. I mostly write foreign news, but I’ve also written sports and prepared interviews with foreign diplomats. I work with a two-hour morning show where two presenters read and comment on newspapers from around the world. I translate the English language papers, assist with pre- and post-show production, make copies and get a lot of tea.
“I haven’t even got to the best part yet – I work for TRT Türk, which is an international, 24- hour, live news channel, part of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, which is basically the BBC of Turkey.
“In short, I guess I just wanted to say thank you. I'm 21 years old and working as a journalist already, thanks to everything I learned and gained studying with you.”
Five months after sending that email, Sera took up a new job on the Hürriyet Daily News, Turkey's oldest and most respected English daily.
In 2012, she wrote to say: “I’m covering some pretty serious pieces – covering issues like the separation of powers in Turkey, interviewing important people and doing interesting cultural stories, using the skills I learned at the LSJ every step of the way.”

DISTANCE LEARNING 1

Back in November 2002, in a business blog for my bank reflecting on my first year as a freelance, I revealed how my 300+ distance-learning students had become an increasing source of delight and inspiration as they battled their way through their respective courses.

They were based in more than 30 countries, from Armenia and Georgia to Japan and China, India and Pakistan, Canada and America, South Africa, Australia and the Middle East.
Many were multilingual and the sheer range of languages they had at their command was in itself fascinating - not just the main European languages, but Afrikaans, Arabic, Zulu, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Armenian, Welsh, Hindi, Punjabi, Yoruba, Polish, Sinhalese, Filipino, Swedish and Urdu - to name but a few.
They also came from all walks of life - proving, if nothing else, that writing for a living is one of those dreams shared by hundreds of thousands of ordinary people who may be less fortunate than journalists in terms of finding a job which gives them genuine career satisfaction.
They included bankers and accountants, teachers and medics, sales professionals and professors. Some worked in IT, telecoms and new media positions, others in secretarial or administrative posts. There were nurses and social workers, management consultants and business analysts, as well as housewives, students and the unemployed.
They were interested in anything and everything, from antiques to animal rights, from clubbing to raft-racing. And that's perfect, because it means many of them went on to find a writing niche with a specialist magazine or trade journal where their skills and interests were particularly relevant.
Sometimes the range in backgrounds, circumstances and interests seemed almost surreal, ensuring that opening assignments for marking was never boring. There was a missionary struggling to find any English speaker for miles around to interview for a feature other than her husband, and another from a prisoner in the Middle East who was reliant on the British consul for all communication with the outside world.
It meant the copy they produced for "live" news stories was always intriguing too, from court cases in China or Saudi Arabia to articles dealing with the problems faced by women farmers in South Africa or violent demonstrations against the president in Venezuela.
Their features would include fascinating titbits of information about hill-walking in Kygyzstan or the nightlife in Osaka; and best of all they were able to see their efforts paying off with bylines and commissions - for an Armenian website, or the Georgian Times, or the Jerusalem Post.
Over the years, my caseload of web marking has dramatically reduced, mainly to allow time for face-to-face postgraduate teaching, but the ongoing enthusiasm, determination and drive of those studying abroad, especially in countries where journalism is far from being a safe profession, make it hard to feel churlish about late-night marking and continue to provide a fascinating window on the world.
Some past students have also gone on to achieve significant writing careers - from the former policeman who became a crime correspondent in South Africa to travel writer Chris Ord (above, bottom), who went on to set up his own website - the travelrag.com - which allowed dozens of others to showcase their writing talent.
He went on to edit numerous specialist travel magazines, including Get Lost! (2004), Walk magazine (2006),  Outer Edge (2008) and Trail Run magazine (2011), as well as having his travel stories published in titles around the world.
Another aspiring writer who has gone on to establish a strong web presence with his uncompromising blog is independent freelance video and print journalist Jason N Parkinson (above, top - see jasonnparkinson.com) who has worked as a freelance cameraman for AP, Sky, More4, Channel 4 and ITN, as well as editing his own documentaries.
Jason specialises in covering international political dissent, including G8 protest coverage, and worked with Mark Thomas on the Coca Cola investigations for Dispatches and investigating the activities of Shell Oil and Gas company in County Mayo, Ireland, exposing the pollution of the local water supply. He has covered the protests in Athens and political uprising in Cairo, EDL protests and other political protests around the world. He now contributes to reportdigital.co.uk, a video and picture library specialising in protest coverage.

PICTURE (above, top):

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - 05.07.08. A member of the Metropolitan Police Forward Intelligence Team attentively watches and make notes on freelance film and print journalist Jason N. Parkinson in Croydon, South London, England on Saturday 5th July 2008. Mr. Parkinson was covering an anti-G8 protest at the time. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is under pressure from the National Union of Journalists on police surveillance of journalists by the Metropolitan Police Forward Intelligence Team. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2008.

DISTANCE LEARNING 2

Perhaps one of the most rewarding aspects of being involved in distance learning is seeing the impact that such a course can have on someone's career choices. Two examples featured on the main LSJ website illustrate this particularly well.

Nicci Perides (top) worked for seven years as a dancer before making the 'natural progression' into television, initially as a presenter and later working on documentaries and script writing.

But her love of travel had always led her to explore new parts of the world and it was a chance meeting with a travel journalist on a chicken bus in Nicaragua which encouraged her to turn her hobby into a career.

She duly embarked on a distance-learning course with the LSJ, soon picking up her first paid commission for The Times magazine. It wasn't long before she was being published in other outlets, from Overseas Living to TNT, Business Destinations and Jetaway magazine.

She progressed to being a writer and later online editor for Time & Leisure magazine before a further freelancing stint, initially as a sub-editor for Net-a-Porter and then as assistant online editor for DOTWNews.com, based in the United Arab Emirates.

The initials stand for “Destinations of the World” – and for a 30-year-old who has already travelled to dozens of different countries (47 so far and counting) – there could hardly be a more appropriate outlet.

“What I have discovered is that the LSJ gives a great foundation in journalism training,” she says. “I would never have believed I would have achieved so much in such little time. I only began the course two years ago – and I’m now doing the job I love.

“I absolutely love travelling and writing and it’s just amazing that I can combine the two and actually get paid for it. It’s my dream job.”

Richard Torné (above) was someone else who had always wondered about turning his hobby into a career. Formerly a struggling musician, he had already "gone it alone" to set up his own business running an English language academy in Spain.

But after completing the online course, he rapidly became a full-time journalist in 2004 and went on to become editor of the Costa Almería News in 2007.

Another major achievement was helping a famed film specialist, Eddie Fowlie, to write his memoirs – David Lean’s Dedicated Maniac – which were published in the UK in 2010 shortly before Eddie died.

DISTANCE LEARNING 3

Distance-learning students continue to get in touch with stories of their successes, and many of their stories can now be told in the student case studies section on the main lsj.org website.

As a young man growing up in Zambia, Charles Mafa (top) always had a strong interest in the media – and he got his first “break” volunteering for a community radio station shortly after leaving school. Passionate about community service and the role of journalists in standing up for the rights of ordinary people, he pursued a career in broadcasting before embarking on the LSJ’s distance learning journalism course.

He completed the course within a year, achieving a diploma with distinction, and in 2011 he scooped second prize in a World Bank sponsored national award for Zambian journalists - which in turn led to a three-month placement at the Mail and Guardian's Centre for Investigative Journalism in South Africa, where he has had various investigative stories published in the local and international media.

Other students in touch in 2011-12 included Hilary Munro in Cairo, celebrating having her first programme published on the BBC's World Service, and Ian Hembrow, now a regular contributor to The Guardian's housing network website.