The first piece I worked on for The Cheese Grater as a bright-eyed fresher was an investigation into contract changes for outsourced security staff at UCL, transcribing a former editor’s (shoutout Rusheen) interviews with staff, labour organisers, and activists on campus, for my first, shiny ‘Additional Reporting’ credit.
Meticulously combing through pages of transcripts to identify themes and useful quotes, I quickly fell in love with journalism. Issues that seemed endlessly complicated and bureaucratic to me at first instantly came to life in these interviews. The conversations revealed the profound impact of changed shift patterns on workload, employee wellbeing, and workers’ rights.
Working on meaningful investigations at the heart of the UCL community has undoubtedly been an incredible opportunity — and has given me a range of transferable skills for life beyond uni (read my LinkedIn for more. Boring!).
But the most rewarding part of this experience, by far, has been the people I’ve met along the way.
The most passionate and interesting people I’ve worked with at this publication over the last three years aren’t necessarily those who want to break into journalism; they’re people who sincerely care about the University and believe UCL is a place worth fighting for.
They’re the people who insist on covering poor conditions in accommodation, labour rights issues, campus protests, and Union democracy, not just for the purpose of building a strong portfolio, but because they genuinely care about making these issues accessible to fellow students.
When we were awarded Best Publication at the Student Publication Association national awards, one of the judges commended our “commitment to delivering journalism that champions [the] reader”. I argue we are able to do this precisely because we are not professional journalists — not despite it.
Our strongest work — pieces that challenge the establishment, seek to make complex institutional issues accessible to students, spotlight marginalised voices, and genuinely push for positive change — come from a genuine desire within the student community to make things better for everyone.
As I sign off as editor-in-chief of this wonderfully silly little kitchen utensil magazine and step into the deep dark graduate abyss, I urge everyone still around next year to give student journalism a chance. You are guaranteed to meet people who care fiercely about making their communities better, and that may just make it one of the most rewarding experiences of your life.