Canadian Living has launched a new program that aims to foster excellence among journalism students in the form of a joint internship-writing contest program. The best part? The program actually pays.

“Every young Canadian journalist has a great story to tell, and Canadian Living magazine wants to help him or her tell it. As Canada’s most popular women’s magazine, Canadian Living is proud to support the development of Canada’s young journalists with the creation of the Canadian Living Journalism Prize.”

The Canadian Living Journalism Prize invites current students to submit a pitch, along with a formal application, for a feature story for either the health or life section of the magazine. The applicants with the best pitches will be asked to develop their stories in full and the six best of those (first, second and third prizes for both life and health stories) will be published in Canadian Living and the writer will be offered a cash prize.

The two first prize winners will be offered a 12-week summer internship with Canadian Living where they will be able to gain valuable experience in magazine production. The internship is unpaid, but each first prize winner will receive $1,500.

This is an excellent opportunity for students to practice writing queries and to start thinking about the various needs of different magazines when coming up with pitches. It’s also a chance to put to print a feature story upper-level students  would likely be writing for class anyway.

Applications are due by November 6, 2009. Check out this and other great opportunities at our Canadian internships page.