Following a foundation-sponsored internship in 2007, Laura Cameron went to graduate school in New York and later moved to Toronto to join Canadian Business magazine as a reporter. She also spent time at Toronto Lifeand is now a freelance writer. She says:

“When I wrote my application essay to the Marjorie Deane internship programme in the spring of 2007, I riffed on Alan Greenspan´s infamous remark about ´irrational exuberance´, speculating tongue-in-cheek that the inflated stock market was the result of financial executives taking mind-altering substances. Shortly after my internship in London, I moved to New York to study for an MA in journalism at Columbia. By that point, the global financial system had begun to unravel.

On a reporting trip, I ventured down from the quiet Morningside Heights neighbourhood to a beleaguered but bustling Wall Street. I spoke with two young traders who, as it happened, described a trading floor drug culture in vivid detail. This is one of the many stories I have chased during this fascinating time to be covering the economy.

Thanks to the Marjorie Deane internship, I started out in financial journalism as the field was entering its heyday. For better or worse, it looks like that the financial crisis will continue to provide a rich vein of inquiry for the foreseeable future.”