Carleton University’s journalism program supports a number of different apprenticeships/internships for journalism students with a variety of employer partners across the country. The apprenticeships/internships provide opportunities for students to apply the journalism skills they learn in the classroom, build their portfolios and open doors to career opportunities after graduation.
Few of those short-term apprenticeships/internship opportunities exist in newsrooms in northern or Indigenous communities in Canada, in part, because the high cost of travel and accommodation are a barrier to most students.
This fund, to be administered by the School of Journalism, will support student travel to accept internship opportunities with professional news organizations in Canada’s northern territories or in one of Canada’s predominantly Indigenous communities. The intent of this fund is to help the recipient cover the costs of transportation and/or accommodation that might otherwise prevent them from considering professional internships in northern or Indigenous communities.
The fund was established in 2020 by Mary McGuire. After graduating from Carleton’s journalism program in 1979 Mary worked as a journalist in Whitehorse, Yukon, primarily for CBC Radio, for seven years. Then she covered northern and Indigenous issues on Parliament Hill and across the North for the CBC’s Northern Service. Later she returned to Carleton to join the journalism faculty where she taught for 28 years before cancer took her out of the classroom. 
Mary believes the opportunity to launch her career in the North gave her a sense of wonder about the country and opened her eyes and her heart to the First Nations people, their history and their place in Canada.
Mary wants to help young journalists in the program discover Canada through the North, where local news is so important, and develop their journalistic skills under the guidance and leadership of professional journalists in northern and Indigenous newsrooms.
Fund Terms:
Awarded annually by the Director or Associate Director of the School of Journalism and Communication (the Journalism program head) on the recommendation of the awards committee of the journalism program to a journalism student (undergraduate or graduate). The purpose of this fund is to support student travel to accept internship opportunities with professional news organizations in Canada’s northern territories or in one of Canada’s predominantly Indigenous communities. The intent of this fund is to help the recipient cover the costs of transportation and/or accommodation that might otherwise prevent them from considering professional internships in northern or remote locations. Established in 2020 by Mary McGuire.