In August, thirty journalism students and their teacher – Kathy Buchanan – visited the Melbourne Writers’ Festival to learn about the ins and outs of a being a journalist in Melbourne. Students had an opportunity to hear from guest speakers who are experts in their field and engage in interviews as part of their Journalism projects.

The students’ journey to Federation Square was an eventful one; which included five students losing their way, a student getting stuck behind train barriers and students winning the admiration of the group for helping others who had got lost. Eventually everyone made it to the event in one piece.

The Festival was held in an indoor atrium where some students got to sit and relax while they listened to lectures and other chivalrous Monash Collegians gave up their seats to allow others to sit down. Students listened to the lectures of Michael Gawenda and Jonathan Green, two speakers who are renowned journalists in Australia. Both speakers shared their opinions on and experiences with various current affairs and the advancements in media technology.

The Monash College students had differing opinions on the conference, but one of the top journalism students – Jeremy – commented that he “found the Writers’ Festival very interesting and many of the views shared by the speakers were extremely useful for my media and journalism projects.”

After the conference, students gathered backstage to get their journalism interviews with the speakers. Students: Anh, Jumana, Fatimah and Alanoud were all really excited and appreciative to have the opportunity to speak to the journalists and they left the conference much richer in knowledge and experience.