Each year, graduates and near-graduates from our journalism program have the opportunity to apply for a coveted, paid, one year cadetship working in our Centre for Advancing Journalism newsroom under the mentorship and direction of our CAJ team.
Given the talent coming through the ranks, it’s always a hotly contested gig, and an excruciating process for the selection committee.
As our outgoing cadet Jordyn Beazley takes up a prized cadetship with The Guardian Australia, we welcome aboard our 2022 cadet, Petra Stock.
Petra brings to the role and The Citizen a knack for investigations, a passion for covering climate and technology, and a determination to tell compelling stories.
Petra, who is in the final stage of completing her Master of Journalism, already has plenty of runs on the board. Her perseverance using Freedom of Information laws delivered a series of exclusives for The Age and The Citizen investigating cyber security issues with remote learning.
The stories, covering digital platforms Zoom, Google and Webex, were highly commended at the 2021 Ossie Awards for investigative journalism and a finalist in Democracy’s Watchdogs‘ student investigative reporting award.
She’s been shortlisted for Melbourne Press Club’s 2021 Quill Award for student journalist of the year. Her nominated Australian Geographic story “National treasure” covers the decline of small coins and the significance of their uniquely Australian ‘tails’ designed by Stuart Devlin.
National Treasure in Australian Geographic Nov-Dec 2021
She has contributed to nearly a dozen stories in The Age, including a front page article on teacher vaccinations, an FoI story revealing the results of a principals’ survey on mental health and academic progress during Melbourne’s lockdowns, and good news on phascogales and children’s museums.
She has also written for Archer, RenewEconomy, The Driven and eVTOL.com.
In the cadetship, Petra hopes to build on the interviewing, writing and audio skills she has learned in the Master of Journalism course.
She’ll also be drawing on expertise and insider knowledge gained from two decades working on issues such as climate change, planning, transport and Indigenous heritage in government, industry and not-for-profit organisations.
The cadetship is funded through a generous gift from the Schiavon Trust, established in the memory of the late May and Romeo Schiavon.
