SCOTT HOPE
JOURNALIST
Cleveden Secondary School
I grew up in Maryhill, in Glasgow, attending Cleveden Secondary School in the north west of the city. Developing a taste for writing and media at Cleveden, I decided to study media and journalism at college and then university.
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I left school with 4 Scottish Higher Qualifications and an Advanced Higher in English.
City of Glasgow College 2015–2016
I enrolled in Media and Communications at the City of Glasgow College, using the graded unit part of the course to take on a project which I would enjoy and would become a launch pad for a lot of the skills I would develop later on.
I made a short, 7 minute, documentary on the history of human spaceflight. I had to develop abilities in filming and editing, find compelling archive material, organise interviews and write an engaging and interesting script.
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This project brought together many interests for me; science, history, aeronautics and aerospace. I attained a grade A for my graded unit and HNC on the whole.
Edinburgh Napier University 2016–2019
Next up was Edinburgh. I chose the BA Hons Journalism course at Edinburgh Napier for many reasons, the biggest was definitely the practical nature of the degree.
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I moved out east and soon found myself at home in the Capital, I have thoroughly enjoyed getting familiar with the city as a journalist, producing a number of radio news packages and even reporting from the cities jail – HMP Saughton – on an assignment.
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While at Napier I have made sure to supplement my university education with as many real world placements as possible. I spent two weeks at the Sunday Herald in Glasgow, learning valuable lessons in news values and print media. I also spent a week working at Radio Clyde in Glasgow. This was the week of the Victoria's Nightclub blaze on Sauchiehall Street it was an invaluable experience–I was able to help the news desk craft special extended bulletins on the developing story and observe them respond to a national breaking story in real-time.
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The most loved modules of the Napier course are the wholly practical classes called the 'news days'. With some supervision from lecturers, the entire class acts a newsroom for a day–we cover real stories, producing content to a professional standard. Through the news days I have built up contacts in politics, culture, media and science in Scotland and the UK.
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Missouri School of Journalism 2017
Another reason I was drawn to the Napier course was the study abroad links, particularly with the Missouri School of Journalism in the US. Since secondary school, I had been aware of the journalism school in Missouri as one of the best in the world so almost as soon as I had moved to Napier I was off again, this time going that bit further–across the pond.
Missouri was the most busy, enjoyable and enlightening six months of my life. I took classes in history, documentary making, TV news and business reporting. I travelled to D.C. on a class trip, visiting newsrooms such as the Washington Post, Politico and US News and World Report.
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Seeing world class journalism happening at America's national papers and immersing myself in the prestigious Missouri School of Journalism put the value and importance of journalism into focus for me. While studying at Missouri I worked at the local NPR station, called KBIA, which was run out out of the broadcast journalism school. I spent a month there as a general assignment reporter and reported on stories including the local government and obamacare.