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.