05
Aug
How the Stray Ferret supports local students - and our new pledge
Not only does the Stray Ferret provide stories for our local community, but we strive to directly support the community too.
We regularly have interns working in our newsroom, be it pupils at local schools who want to explore journalism as a career or university students who need the experience to get a job after graduation.
Olivia Cadman, a pupil at King James’s in Knaresborough, recently completed a placement at the Stray Ferret in which she interviewed both her peers and business managers about if going to university is worth it.
Olivia said:
Working at the Stray Ferret gave me some insight into the world of journalism, about the job and the writing as well as the research that goes into it. It showed me what full-time work is like, how big a responsibility it is to quote interviewees accurately and how intricate it is to curate an article.
Overall, I think it was extremely useful, it showed me an alternative pathway to what I could do with an English literature degree, and has made me reconsider my pathway, alongside other peers’ views on university.
Last year, three Year 10 pupils from Harrogate High School spent a week at the Stray Ferret investigating the use of mobile phones in schools.
Grace Cox, Izzy Gordon and Mikayla Diaram were so inspired by their time here that they went on to set up their own school publication, the Purple Press.
We’ve just said goodbye to Laurence Du, a student from the University of Leeds who worked with us for a month, gaining a deeper insight into the day-to-day work of journalists and learning about the customs of a newsroom, as well as getting feedback on his work.
Laurence said:
Doing a placement at the Stray Ferret is an incredible opportunity for me to deeply experience the daily work in a leading newsroom. It helps me a lot as I am able to apply what I have learned in lectures and to practice in real life.
The working environment is friendly and supportive, I always receive encouragement, assistance, and feedback from my colleagues, which helps me improve my journalistic and other skills.
The placement also gives me an opportunity to tackle different challenges and get out of my comfort zone. It cultivates my adventurous and independent attitude towards my life after university.
This month (August), we have Nora Miles from Hampsthwaite, currently studying at the University of Oxford and deputy editor of her university newspaper, working with us.
Having interns is vital for the future of news; only with fresh talent being enticed into the career and trained to a high standard will publications like the Stray Ferret continue to flourish.
Equally as important, successful local journalism helps community cohesion and makes sure everyone feels involved and proud of the area they live in.
In the digital age, and with young people living more of their life online, it is ever more important to ground them in what’s going on in their neighbourhood.
Many young people are constantly exposed to misinformation on social media – their primary source of news - and with AI making increasingly convincing fakes, everyone needs to know which sources are reliable.
When posters were circulated by Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk on X about a mass protest across the UK – including in Harrogate – the Stray Ferret investigated and found the reports to be totally false. Nothing happened that evening.
It is vital that our young people are educated in these dangers, and by consistently promoting the importance of local, independent journalism, we can hope that they will think before they accept something as fact.
Our pledge
Because we believe in action as well as words, we are setting ourselves - and our subscribers - a challenge.
We have given ourselves the goal of getting to 4,000 subscribers - this will mean more than another 1,000 people need to subscribe.
When we hit this milestone we will work with local schools to support a young person and train them to be a journalist - because we always put your money back into our work.
If you’re already a subscriber, thank you, and please share this new initiative far and wide. If not, you can help fund career progression for a local student as well as support our journalism by subscribing – sign up here.
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