Interview Bas le Cointre - student internship at BNR Nieuwsradio
In this interview, we’re talking to Bas le Cointre, third year student International Studies. During the pandemic this year, he did an internship for a renowned Dutch radio station, where he produced his own podcast series. We ask him more about this experience, and what his advice is to fellow students.
Hi Bas, nice to meet you. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Hi, I am Bas le Cointre, 22 years old and I’m in my third-year of International Studies. I’m originally from Amsterdam, but for the last two years, I have lived in both Leiden and The Hague. I’m a big fan of traveling, in the summer of 2019 I went to Colombia. Since I chose to specialize in Latin-America it was really interesting to have an inside perspective on the region and to improve my Spanish. Besides traveling I have a big passion for making and watching documentaries and going to concerts and music festivals.
For my fifth semester´s discretionary space my first plan was to do an internship somewhere in Latin America. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic this was not possible. Therefore, I decided to look for an internship somewhere in the Netherlands. I ended up finding a place at BNR Nieuwsradio, this is a well-respected independent Dutch radio station providing international and domestic news and in-depth analyses. From an early age, I have been interested in world issues, news, and politics. During high school, I did an internship at AT5, a local news channel from Amsterdam. This experience has fueled my aspiration in journalism even more. I started this internship partly with the idea of acquiring skills that are more difficult to develop in an university context. On the other hand, I also wanted to figure out if editorial work really suits me.
We'd love to hear more about your internship. What did you do exactly? What was the result?
At BNR I was assigned to the news desk and participated in preparing news items for daily programs like, ‘De Ochtendspits’, ‘De Wereld’, ‘Spitsuur’, and ‘Ask me anything’. I worked as a full-time editor, contributing to news items from start to ultimate broadcast.
At the start, it was quite challenging, as it was my first real experience within journalism, but after a while, I got more accustomed to it. I've had a lot of fun interviewing and meeting all sorts of people, such as multiple politicians and entrepreneurs.
What was your favorite experience?
Besides working on the daily programs for BNR I also had some special days. One of them was during ‘Prinsjesdag’. This year Prinsjesdag was a bit weird as not as many people as normal were allowed to attend it. Although, BNR was and we had our own studio in the parliament building. During the day multiple politicians, including our prime-minister Mark Rutte, were interviewed. It was my job to write down interview questions and introduction texts. One of the interviews that I prepared was with Kajsa Ollongren, Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.
What was an unexpected learning during your internship?
Another wonderful thing was that I got the opportunity to create my own podcast series. I had to do everything myself from developing a format, inviting guests, conducting and preparing interviews, recording the podcast, and editing the audio. Firstly, I was thinking about a lot of topics, such as the possible end of neoliberalism and circular economy. Both these topics were introduced to me during the course Global Political Economy. However, eventually reading a book called ‘Fantoomgroei’ inspired me to make a podcast about this. This book explains how the Dutch economy grew since the 80s, while real wages have barely risen. In my podcast series I discussed where our obsession with growth comes from and how can we move towards a new story for our economy. Hereby the link to the podcast series (it is in dutch).
Anything you can advise fellow students?
I would really advise students to do an internship, either during their bachelor’s or your master’s. I think it is really good to gain first-hand practical experience and to work on your network. Besides improving multiple learning objectives, the internship has also taken me more out of my comfort zone, especially in pitching and interviewing. Even when you find out that an internship was not the right choice for you, this will bring you one step closer to the job that is right for you :)
