Cassandra Victor is a Cadet Journalist for Star Media Group. A BA (Hons) in Communication graduate, she started her career with the StarTrack Graduate Trainee Program in January 2022. After an insightful 2-year training, she received a placement in the company writing Lifestyle features. Cassandra enjoys being in media as she loves its power to share stories. Combined with her interest in law and politics, she aims to share the right news about what happens around the world.

Cassandra started her university journey unsure of what she wanted to do in future, much like many other students. She eventually chose to enrol in the BA (Hons) in Communication programme due to its wide course outline and her general interest in the media industry. The course touched on the general aspects in the field of communication, which proved useful to her. “I got to grasp a bit of everything to be an all-rounder,” she reflects. This was particularly helpful during her time in the StarTrack Graduate Trainee Program, where she had to work in varying departments in the company.

During her second year, Cassandra faced the challenge of fully-online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While she regrets not being able to participate in on-campus activities, she admits that the online presentations helped hone her skills for the workplace. Together with her lecturers and course mates, they made do by adapting to online projects. Notably, Cassandra’s cohort organised an online concert, Auxiliary, for their Event Management class under Mr Srikumar.

“Though I wish I had more on-campus time and experience, I’m grateful for the lecturers for guiding us through the tough times,” Cassandra comments on her experience with her lecturers. While it was difficult to engage with students in a purely online setting, the lecturers were patient and offered guidance in both coursework and coping with the pandemic. Cassandra is particularly thankful for Dr Pauline, Ms Intan, Mr Srikumarand Ms Vijaya for their support throughout the pandemic.

Despite spending most of her degree life indoors, Cassandra still has fond memories from her time on-campus at Sunway University. She joined the netball club and worked on their design and marketing team while keeping active in the sport. Her favourite memory is graduation, where her course mates and lecturers reunited in-person for the first time after the pandemic. “It felt like time and distance didn’t change our friendship,” she recalls, adding that it was a moment she wants to remember forever.

When she first stepped into the working world, Cassandra was fearful as she did not have any experience. She is thankful that the group projects, creative portfolio, and teamwork she built during university helped her get through the interview process for the StarTrack Graduate Trainee Program. Throughout the program, she had to adapt on the spot to departments she had no background in while discovering her interests within the company. She started the program with an interest in general news desk journalism, but unexpectedly discovered a different interest in writing feature stories.  

“Joining Lifestyle features writing was definitely not something I even saw myself doing in the future,” Cassandra mentions. It was only after spending time writing feature stories in the training program that she realised it was what she wanted to do. This led to her current position in Star Media Group, writing Lifestyle features as a Cadet Journalist. Now, she is proud to be in this position and sees herself in the company for the long term, doing something enjoyable and exciting all the while.