Mental health article nets LC student a Troy Reeb internship

By Steffanie Costigan - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on April 25, 2024.

Herald photo by Steffanie Costigan Justin Sibbet has won the Troy Reeb scholarship.

An article on mental health within the Canadian Armed Forces has earned Lethbridge College second-year Digital Communications and Media student Justin Sibbet an internship with Troy Reeb, executive vice president of Global News.

The Troy Reeb internship is annually rewarded given to a DCM graduate of Lethbridge College. Reeb is a 1998 graduate of the college’s Broadcast Journalism program.

“Having been in the military, and then knowing two guys I served with who passed away through suicide, it’s an important topic,” said Sibbet, who last summer did freelance work for The Herald, covering a range of subjects including the provincial election.

“And it’s one that, surprisingly, I don’t think gets enough attention. You can definitely read articles about it. But a lot of the time if you do a quick Google search, you’ll find that a lot of the articles are quite dated at this point,” said Sibbet.

Sibbet’s submitted article focuses on the high numbers of deaths by suicide within Canadian veterans along with the wellbeing of their mental health, supports, and resources available to veterans.

Sibbet said two of his friends who served with him died due to their mental health.

“It’s terrible. Great guys, and way too young,” he said.

He said if his article was ever published, he hopes it would have an impact.

“I don’t know that it’s going to be published anywhere. But if it was, I would hope that they would just be able to understand that there’s a problem in the military right now with in terms of mental health, and it’s a problem that has been around for a very long time.”

Sibbet voiced his excitement about the opportunity the internship will give him.

“It’s a good opportunity to go see the difference with the major market versus a smaller market, Lethbridge versus Toronto, Ottawa kind of thing.

“And how the newsrooms are different. And I think it’ll be just a good opportunity for me to be able to get out there and hopefully put my skills to use and get some feedback and network and connect with people in the industry,” said Sibbet.

Sibbet mentioned some of the other students which he honoured who were finalists for the contest such as second-year DCM students Brett Browne, Angie Wiebe, and first year DCM students Braden Hood, along with Rhenna Mirus.

“A couple of other people that were nominated there or finalists I should say, were great students as well. So, it was competition but very happy I was selected,” he said.