Big cats and small children played together at Hertel’s zoo. Escapes were commonplace. Then the inevitable happened
Jolene is a reporter who loves long-form, in-depth stories. She is a generalist reporter based in Victoria, and speaks both English and French. She graduated from Mount Royal University with a degree in journalism and came out of the program with two national awards for her work on a multimedia story about a Calgary mobile home park. Being from Alberta, she got her first taste of Island life while working as a reporter with the Comox Valley Record, where she covered everything from aquaculture to the overdose crisis to Cumberland village council. She later spent a year as a copy editor with Pagemasters North America, working with clients like the Toronto Star and the Winnipeg Free Press. She is a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists, and her honours and awards include the CAJ Student Award of Excellence in 2018, Best Multimedia Production from Emerge Media Awards in 2018, and she was a finalist for the Multimedia Story of the Year from Associated Collegiate Press Awards in 2018.
