Amy L.

Dempsey
** *********** ***** Tel: 416.220.8527
Toronto, Ont. *** *** dempsey.amylynn@gmail.com

SUMMARY
• Professional, driven, thrives in a daily news environment
• Descriptive, clean and focused writing
• Can shoot and edit video, collect and edit sound, conceptualize and package multimedia
• Basic knowledge of html

REPORTING EXPERIENCE
 
Toronto Star – Reporting Intern                 2010 
Toronto, ON
• Selected from hundreds of applicants for a 12-week general assignment reporting internship to begin in June
 
The Canadian Press – Reporting Intern              2010 
Ottawa, ON
• Two national newspaper bylines in two weeks, multiple stories published in print and online across the country
• Pitched stories, jumped at daily news opportunities, filed and updated developing stories throughout the day, collected
video and audio for the web and broadcast wire
 
CBC Radio – Associate Producer Intern              2009
Halifax, NS
• Pitched stories, produced and edited feature interviews, chased and booked guests for Mainstreet, an afternoon news and
current affairs show
• Produced a talk tape about second-hand holiday shopping, conducted multiple interviews aired over two-week period,
chased and booked guests, collected tape of bizarre holiday stories for annual holiday special

Contact FM – Reporter                  2009 
Kigali, Rwanda
• Worked collaboratively with multilingual reporters to produce daily scheduled newscasts in English, French and
Kinyarwanda
• Pitched stories, conducted interviews and filed daily news stories by 6 p.m. each day

Ottawa Citizen – Reporting Intern                 2009 
Ottawa, ON
• Wrote daily news and feature stories on strict deadlines for the city, business and style sections
• Pitched stories, took on assignments and filed to the web

STUDENT REPORTING EXPERIENCE

 
Midweek – Reporter, Producer, Audio Editor, Host          2010 
Ottawa, ON
• Produced and reported for an weekly current affairs radio show transmitted on Ottawa’s CKCU and online
• Chased and packaged stories on tight deadlines, produced short radio documentaries and feature interviews
Capital News Online – Reporter, Editor, Multimedia Producer        2009 
Ottawa, ON
• Reporter for two of five fall 2009 issues; both articles achieved top story placement on capitalnews.ca
• As editor led story meetings, generated ideas, gave assignments, guided reporter-producer teams, thoroughly copy-edited
and re-focused multiple stories
 
Dalhousie Gazette – Reporter              2006 – 2008 
Halifax, NS
• Pitched stories, attended meetings, covered campus and community events for Dalhousie University’s weekly student
newspaper
• Wrote features and reported for arts and culture and opinion sections

RELATED EXPERIENCE

Carleton School of Journalism – Teaching Assistant        2009 – 2010 
Ottawa, ON
• Selected as teaching assistant for the first-year master of journalism introduction to print, radio and TV reporting class
• Advised and guided reporters, critiqued story ideas, critiqued and graded assignments
• Directed reporting teams through the process of producing an online publication, radio newscasts and TV newscasts
 
Rwanda Initiative – Research and Communications Assistant      2008 – 2009 
Ottawa, ON
• Compiled a database of print, online and broadcast news coverage
• Assisted in the planning, organization and promotion of Living With, a photo exhibit on HIV/AIDS in Rwanda that travelled
to various Canadian cities

EDUCATION

Master of Journalism – Carleton University            2010 
• Bill McWhinney Prize for International Development Journalism (2009)
• Andrew McIntosh Award in Investigative Enterprise (2009)
• Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2009)
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada Graduate Scholarship (2008 – 2009)

Bachelor of Arts in English literature (with honours) – Dalhousie University    2008 
• Dalhousie Renewable Entrance Scholarship (2004 – 2008)
• Dean’s list (2004 – 2008)
• George Burris Study in England Scholarship (2007)

PERSONAL

• Avid traveller – semester abroad at the University of Hull, UK; human trafficking research in San Francisco, California;
human trafficking field research in Ghana; radio internship in Rwanda; travel throughout Europe and East Africa
• Before journalism – worked as a server in a resort on Cape Breton Island, nannied for a family in Halifax, tutored a young
man who has a physical and mental disability, dipped cones at Dairy Queen
• Special reporting interests – public health, technology, media, social justice issues, generational trends

***References available upon request.