2015 Joan Donaldson CBC News Scholarship recipients

Congratulations to the eight outstanding recipients of the 2015 Joan Donaldson Scholarship.

• Haydn Watters
• Micki Cowan​
• Philippe de Montigny​
• Ramna Shahzad​
• Arielle Piat-Sauvé​
• Taylor Simmons​
• Lien Yeung​
• Darryl Hol​

Haydn Watters​ | King's College, Halifax

Haydn Watters is from the tiny town of Elora, Ontario north of Guelph. He's spent the past four years in Halifax, where he's graduating from the University of King's College with combined honours in journalism and political science. He got his first taste for broadcast after starting a radio station out of a friend's dorm room in his first year at King's.

Haydn has since contributed to CBC Halifax, Global News Halifax, C100FM and CKDU 88.1, a Halifax community radio station. He hosts a weekly alternative music show, Smorgasborg, which airs on CKDU and The Grand 92.9FM in Fergus, Ontario. He's written articles for the Guelph Mercury, the Watch (the King's student newspaper) and co-authored Where's Mom's Hair?, a children's book about dealing with his mom's breast cancer treatment. At King's, Haydn focused on broadcast journalism.

He covered everything from federal politics to becoming a mall elf. When he's not writing, Haydn loves to drum with his band, The Boo Radley Project. He was heavily involved with the King's Students' Union, serving as vice-president of communications and as journalism representative. Haydn's also one of the coordinators of Riverfest Elora, a three-day festival of music and art in his hometown.

Micki Cowan​ | Carleton University, Ottawa

Micki Cowan started her life in the rural Saskatchewan prairies, but a love for other cultures kept her on the move across Canada and around the world from a young age. She got her honours undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in Asian Area Studies.

When she wasn't studying Japanese, she could be found in her second home as news editor at the famed student newspaper, the Ubyssey. After university she interned at CTV Vancouver, where she went undercover with CTV's investigative team for a story about essay mills. Her work as an intern helped land her a job as an online reporter. Micki quickly fell for the world of broadcast and went on to earn her Master of Journalism degree at Carleton University in Ottawa.

There she received numerous accolades, including a SSHRC graduate scholarship and the Murray Goldblatt scholarship for showing the best potential as a journalist in her program. Her summer was spent producing and filming a documentary in Shanghai on air pollution. Now she focuses on telling visual stories that require an investigative flair or an untold angle, especially in the realm of immigration or politics.

Philippe de Montigny​ | Carleton University, Ottawa

Born in Montréal and raised in Edmonton, Philippe de Montigny began his foray into journalism in his tender teenage years, writing for a local francophone newspaper and eventually for his campus paper. He received an honours degree in economics from the University of Alberta, graduating at the top of his class and among the top five in the faculty of arts. A desire to cultivate his journalistic skills led him to pursue a master of journalism at Carleton University, where he earned a Murray Goldblatt Scholarship for showing "the best potential as a journalist."

He aspires to become a business reporter, drawing on his background in economics and his passion for entrepreneurship. Last year, he worked at the Financial Post and freelanced a feature on the cooperative sector for a Financial Times publication. A proud Franco-Albertan, he contributed to the minority-language media landscape as a television and radio reporter for ICI Radio-Canada Alberta in Edmonton, ICI Radio-Canada Manitoba in Winnipeg and as a freelancer for Alberta's French-language weekly, Le Franco. He also published a bilingual children's book to raise $10,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society.

Ramna Shahzad​ | Ryerson University, Toronto

Ramna Shahzad grew up in Karachi, Pakistan and Manama, Bahrain before immigrating to Canada in 2009. Growing up in different parts of the world, learning new languages and absorbing new cultures, sparked her curiosity to find and tell interesting stories. To learn how to do this professionally, and make money out of it too, Ramna attended Ryerson University for her undergraduate degree in journalism.

During this time she interned at the CBC Toronto local newsroom where she loved the thrill of breaking news and walking into work each day not knowing what she would be covering. As a student, Ramna's work was published by the Canadian Press in publications like the Globe and Mail, CBC online, CTV News and Huffington Post.

She also wrote longer features for publications like The Grid and Queen's Park Briefing. While reporting for the Ryersonian in her final year, Ramna covered a top story about an ISIS jihadist with an active social media persona and an alleged Ryerson connection. The story was a hit online and featured on the front page for two issues in a row. Ramna has also worked for the Ontario Ministry of Attorney General at the Office of the Independent Police Review Director as a communications assistant.

Arielle Piat-Sauvé​ | Ryerson University, Toronto

Arielle Piat-Sauvé is a Montreal-born, Toronto-based bilingual journalist. While studying political science and history at McGill University, she interned at a New York City public relations firm. Arielle's passion for sharing stories inspired her to pursue a master's degree in journalism at Ryerson University. In the summer of 2014, she interned at CBC's Power and Politics with Evan Solomon, researching and producing segments on everything from Supreme Court decisions to aboriginal issues. That experience influenced her decision to do her graduate thesis on the youth vote.

Arielle also worked at MediaFace, a Toronto digital production company, where she edited and voiced educational videos promoting the 2015 Pan Am Games. Although she loves the adrenaline rush of a breaking newsroom, she has always been passionate about long-form journalism. She was the senior editor of the Spring 2015 Ryerson Review of Journalism, and her feature about the investigative reporting that led to the Charbonneau Commission was the issue's cover story.

Arielle hopes to report in both English and French. Follow her on Twitter @arielleps (except during the playoffs, unless you're a Habs fan).

Taylor Simmons​ | Western University, London, ON

Taylor Simmons started her post-secondary career in London, Ontario, where she studied media at Western University and broadcast journalism at Fanshawe College. She spent countless hours in Fanshawe's newsroom working as a reporter, newscaster and current affairs producer, finding and telling stories to the London area.

Over the course of her undergraduate career, she was awarded the Martha Blackburn scholarship, presented to the top female first-year student at Fanshawe, the CBC Barbara Frum Interviewing Scholarship from the RTDNF, the Bayshore Broadcasting Corporation Scholarship, awarded to Fanshawe's best newscaster, and the gold medal for the highest grades in her class at Western. She also hosted, and later coordinated, Western's television show, the Big Purple Couch (now known as WesternTV). Taylor has spent time interning at the London Free Press, 680 News, Global National and CTV London, where she pitched and executed a story on youth unemployment and over qualification.

She decided to apply for Western's MA in journalism program to hone her skills as a multiplatform journalist. In her final semester, she received the 2015 London CAC/Rogers Cable TV student award for superior academic performance. She also produced some of her best work, focusing on inadequacies in the affordable housing system.

Lien Yeung​ | UBC, Vancouver

Lien Yeung is a Chinese-Canadian journalist from Vancouver, B.C. She's come full circle to journalism after an award-winning career in the corporate sector. Her passion for journalism started at Simon Fraser University's campus publication, where she was the associate news editor.

After graduating with a bachelor's degree in criminology and communications, she specialized in marketing and content generation for national media brands. But, her passion for news drew her to CBC Vancouver where she provided leadership on community outreach projects such as the 2010 Winter Olympics and Stanley Cup Finals. Working alongside the newsroom ignited her interest in journalism and she became CBC News Vancouver's weekend weather and community reporter.

In the past year, she's reported weather for The National, CBC News Network and CBC News Edmonton. Lien recently received her masters of journalism from the University of British Columbia where she covered stories on homelessness in Vancouver, food security, and gender inequality in business. Her work has been published in The Globe and Mail, The Tyee, CBC Radio One's On The Coast, and CBCNews.com. An avid volunteer, she is the past president of SFU's alumni association and works with local organizations to further women's economic rights. Connect with her @LienY.

Darryl Hol | UBC, Vancouver

Darryl Hol strives to tell powerful stories about the diversity of the human experience. In the past year, this led him to work on two major projects about refugees. He travelled to Jordan to report on the mental health of Syrian refugees as a fellow with the renowned International Reporting Program and he produced an audio documentary that explored life as a recent refugee in Canada from the rare perspective of a teenage boy.

He has worked in newsrooms across the country including the CBC, Global National, and The Globe and Mail. His written work has appeared on CBC.ca and in The Globe and Mail and his audio work has aired on CBC Radio One.

Darryl first caught the news bug as a teenager, when he'd race against the clock to finish his homework in time to catch The National before bed. From that point on, he knew that he wanted to one day tell stories from across the country and around the globe for the CBC. Along the way, he has worked for two Olympic Games, in his hometown of Vancouver in 2010 and in London in 2012. He holds a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in journalism.