2017 Joan Donaldson CBC News Scholarship recipients

​Congratulations to the eight outstanding recipients of the 2017 Joan Donaldson Scholarship.

• Arian Zarrinkoub
• ​Avneet Dhillon
• Jacqueline McKay
• Josie Lukey
• Marc-André Cossette
• ​Mina Mohit
• Patrick Butler
• Peggy Lam

Arian Zarrinkoub | Concordia University, Montreal

Arian Zarrinkoub is a Peterborough, Ontario-born, Montreal-raised multiplatform journalist and Concordia University graduate with a degree in Journalism and Psychology. She currently works as an on-call reporter at CBC Montreal. Over the course of her undergrad, Arian had the chance to work in several CBC locations both domestically and internationally. With stints at CBC London as an intern and CBC Sherbrooke as a writer-broadcaster under her belt, she has been able to work on stories and cover some of the most impactful events in recent years such as the lead up to the Brexit vote and the 2016 Presidential elections.

Growing up, Arian looked up to strong female journalists like Nahla Ayed and Christiane Amanpour. With her proficiency in five-languages, Arian's dream is to one day be a foreign correspondent for the CBC. She is looking forward to telling compelling, thought-provoking and multi-platform stories important to Canadians. You can follow her on Twitter at @arianzarrinkoub

Avneet Dhillon | Ryerson University, Toronto

Avneet Dhillon spent five years at the University of Waterloo, where she studied political science and business. As part of the school's co-op program, she worked in a range of industries, including government research, non-profit fundraising, and digital marketing. After completing her undergraduate degree, Avneet spent six months working in Belize as part of the federal government's International Youth Internship Program. She developed youth programming for the Belize Family Life Association, a sexual and reproductive health NGO, and helped produce the organization's weekly television and radio show.

Her passion for storytelling inspired her to pursue a master's degree in journalism at Ryerson University. While there, Avneet worked on the Local News Research Project, examining local news coverage of the 2015 federal election. In her final semester, she was part of a team of five students who travelled to Vancouver to produce a documentary on the fentanyl crisis in the city's downtown east side. During this time Avneet also worked as an associate producer at CBC Trending. Since beginning her journalism career, she has covered stories about Toronto's childcare system, survivors of Canada's Sixties Scoop, youth support for electoral reform, and the effects of comedy on Islamophobia. You can connect with her on Twitter @avneetdhillon

Jacqueline McKay | Ryerson University, Toronto

Jacqueline McKay was born and raised in Banff, Alta., but also lived on Vancouver Island before moving to Toronto where she gained her undergraduate degree in journalism at Ryerson University. During Jacqueline's time at Ryerson she specialized in multimedia reporting and broadcast radio. There she created an award-winning multimedia documentary called Seeking Asylum, that explores the stories of five Syrian refugees and how their displacement lead them to the GTA. This project got Jacqueline hooked on telling compelling human interest stories. Jacqueline went on to create a second multimedia documentary on accessibility issues at Ryerson University.

CBC has always been Jacqueline's foundation for journalism since she was 17 and was applying to j-school. Jacqueline would like to pursue a career in podcasting, but has a great interest in where digital journalism and audio storytelling can overlap and aid each other. At a time where accusations and fake news dominate headlines, Jacqueline believes that the world needs great journalists more than ever, and is excited to be starting her career in an evolving media landscape where she can use new technology and tools to tell important stories. Connect with her via twitter: @mckayjacqueline

Josie Lukey | Mount Royal University, Calgary

Josie Lukey has always been interested in learning why people do the things they do. Which is why she always strives to put herself in different situations. Last summer, she attended Harvard University where she studied online storytelling and political speechwriting from some of the world's top scholars. She also wrote about Alberta's PC leadership race and the province's political environment as an intern for Metro Calgary and was previously embedded with the Canadian Armed Forces. One of her proudest accomplishments was completing a fellowship for Discourse Media, called Possible Canada's where she produced a feature length story on electoral reform.

As co-lead editor of the Calgary Journal print and online, she led extensive coverage of Canada's 150th anniversary and produced an investigative multimedia project on police-involved shootings in Alberta. In the past, her work has appeared in Metro Calgary, CTV, J-Source and The Harvard Crimson. Josie received her undergraduate in journalism, with a minor in political science from Mount Royal University in Calgary, AB. Connect with her @josielukey

Marc-André Cossette | Carleton University, Ottawa

Born and raised in Ottawa, Marc-André Cossette is a bilingual multimedia journalist. A former immigration policy analyst with the federal government, he earned a Bachelor of Social Sciences in Political Science from the University of Ottawa and a Master's degree in Political Studies from Queen's University. Journalism has long been Marc-André's end goal, so in 2015 he began a Master of Journalism at Carleton University, where he was awarded the Murray Goldblatt Scholarship for showing the best potential as a journalist.

In summer 2016, he interned at the CBC's London bureau, producing coverage of the Brexit referendum, the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations, and the Paris floods. Back in Canada, he produced segments for CBC's The House, wrote articles for the CBC Politics digital desk, and worked as an on-call reporter with CBC Ottawa. His work has also been published by Maclean's, Postmedia, and other outlets. For as long as he can remember, Marc-André has valued journalism for its ability to foster public debate. He looks forward to doing just that as part of the CBC. Connect with him on Twitter @MarcCossette. 

Mina Mohit | Western University, London, ON

Mina's Canadian life was enriched by the amount of times she moved across the country. After living in Calgary and Vancouver, she went to Montreal for her undergraduate degree and to London for her master's. At McGill University, she received an award to conduct fieldwork and produce a documentary about working women in rural Tamil Nadu, India. It was during an interview with a weaver in a small village—crowded and surrounded by visiting neighbours—when she realized that storytelling was her calling. This made her apply for a masters in journalism at Western University.

While waiting for an acceptance letter, Mina headed to Greece to help with the refugee crisis. There, she worked full-time with Doctors Without Borders as a medical interpreter for Syrian and Afghan refugees. As she witnessed the crisis unfold, she realized that many incidents went under-reported in media coverage. Outside of her working hours, she used social media to report back to Canada and around the world about topics such as smuggling scams, unaccompanied minors and refugee camp conditions. Mina is a true polyglot and xenophile. In conversation, you can find her code-switching from English to French, Farsi to Arabic, or Hindi to Swahili.

Patrick Butler | Carleton University, Ottawa

Patrick Butler grew up in Conception Bay South, N.L. Before graduating high school, he got his first taste of journalism writing for the St. John's Telegram and working the soundboard for "Out of the Fog" at Rogers TV St. John's. After moving to Ottawa to attend Carleton University, Patrick's journalism quickly led to some offbeat assignments. He covered the 2015 European Curling Championships in Esbjerg, Denmark, then the 2016 Brier. As a features writer for the Ottawa Citizen, he profiled some of the Franco-Ontarian community's most prolific historical figures. He also co-hosted "Speak Out," a radio show covering human rights journalism on Ottawa's CKCU-FM.

Fascinated by politics since a young age, Patrick worked at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., during the run-up to an historic election. He has likewise covered goings-on at Newfoundland and Labrador's House of Assembly and disputes over federal access to information legislation and electoral reform. Patrick holds a Bachelor of Journalism and Political Science from Carleton University in Ottawa. His work has been featured on CBC Radio and TV, and in the Ottawa Citizen, iPolitics, J-Source, CFRA, The Overcast and the French-language monthly Le Gaboteur. Connect with him on Twitter @Patrick__Butler

Peggy Lam | UBC, Vancouver

Peggy is a multimedia journalist based in Vancouver. As a fellow of UBC's International Reporting Program, she has spent the last eight months reporting on urban density and migration in Beijing, China. Currently, she is also pursuing a video project that traces the migration journey of Vietnamese boat people in the 1980s. Peggy has worked for the CBC's The Current, where she produced stories of national and international interest for Canada's most-listened-to current affairs program. Prior to that, she worked at CBC Vancouver, Global National, CKNW radio, CJSF radio and The Source Newspaper.

Her passion for storytelling began eight years ago, when she travelled to the Canadian oil sands to film a documentary about the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations and the erosion of their traditional livelihoods. Her 22-minute film, The Largest Deposit, was completed and released last year. Peggy holds a Master of Journalism from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Arts Honours from Simon Fraser University. In 2015, she was also the recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Student Journalism Award. When she's not telling stories, you can find her running, eating at quirky restaurants or enjoying a strong cup of coffee. Connect with her via twitter: @peggylam_

• The Joan Donaldson CBC News Scholarship 
• About the Joan Donaldson CBC News Scholarship 
• About Joan Donaldson  
• Past Recipients of the Joan Donaldson CBC News Scholarship