housewife, editor, magistrate, and an actor have in common? The answer is that at some stage, in the past 40 years or so, they have all worked through their college vacations as `cub' reporters at The Royal Gazette . While relatively few have remained in print journalism, most of those we interviewed last week, agree that their early training with Bermuda's 166-year-old newspaper has served them well. It is surely not pure coincidence that those who survived what some have described as an "in at the deep end'' aspect of life in a busy newsroom have, almost without exception, gone on to achieve distinction in their chosen fields.

Some of the many Bermudians who have been summer students include Bermuda Cablevision founder Mr. Gavin Wilson, senior magistrate the Wor. Will Francis, Bermuda Sun editor Tom Vesey, feature writer for Bermuda Marketing Ltd. Mrs.

Diana Chudleigh, lawyers Mr. David Cook and Mr. Kiernan Bell, realtor Mr. Herb Crisson, former ZBM disc jockey Ms Jane Young, who is now plying her trade in the UK, artist Mrs. Margaret Downing Dill, and actor Mr. John Zuill, who takes on the title role of Richard III in this year's Bermuda Festival production of that play. Former Mid Ocean News editor Gavin Shorto, now Director of Government Information Services, began his career at the Gazette . Two students who have recently been employed at sister paper The Mid Ocean News include Mr. Jonathon Bell, currently on an Outward Bound course in Chile, and Mr. Kevin Symons, now completing his Masters degree at Howard University.

Royal Gazette editor Mr. David L. White recalls that in his day, student reporters were not paid: "I was about 16, and my father had got me a summer job in the bank. But I didn't fancy working in a bank, so I decided to go out and get my own job. I had some idea that newspapers had something to do with creative writing. I got that wrong!'' Although Mr. White subsequently studied law in England, he says he hated it.

"I think I was born for newspapers. I believe journalists are made. You can't create one.'' He feels his three-year stint reporting Magistrates' Court, once he became a full-time reporter, served as a good basis for his subsequent career.

"Young people today expect to be paid while learning the job, to help out with their school fees, and so on, but in my day, it was considered an apprenticeship, part of your training.'' Mr. White is one of only two Bermudians to have received the Commonwealth Press Union Fellowship Award, now known as the Sir Harry Brittain Fellowship.

The other recipient was Miss Carol Parker, recently promoted to the position of newsroom sub-editor, who attended the three-month course in the UK last year. The former student of Berkley Institute and the Bermuda College obtained a degree in journalism at Florida A & M University. After two vacation spells at the paper, Miss Parker was surprised to be told, on her first day as a full-time employee at The Royal Gazette that she was to be responsible for the Business Section, with the immediate designation of senior reporter.

"That was definitely in at the deep end,'' she laughs. "When I was a child,'' she recalls, "I wanted to be a lawyer, because I like arguing. But somewhere along the line, I got interested in politics, and journalism seemed like a good idea. I think I was kind of naive, because I thought I could change some of the corruption that goes on! I stuck with my career decision, even though my father used to say I'd chosen a thankless job.'' Miss Parker feels that her student days at the paper set her in good stead when she worked for a while on a Florida newspaper: "I had offers to do internships in Los Angeles and Atlanta but I turned them down. I think I did the right thing. It would have taken me 20 years to achieve there what I've done so far, here.

It's very competitive in the States.'' A former writer for the Living section of The Royal Gazette , Ms Bonnie Exell left the world of journalism to complete a Masters degree in social work at the University of Calgary. She worked as a summer student in 1989 and turned to journalism at the suggestion of her aunt.

"I had been working in retail and just wasn't using my brain, so she said the paper would be a good place to exercise it! I learned an awful lot about life in Bermuda, as a result. Going to court or to Parliament is really an eye-opener as to how politics and the justice system works.'' Mr. John Barritt, MP, Government Whip, and lawyer with Appleby, Spurling & Kempe, obtained a degree in Political Science from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, and studied Journalism at Carlton University in Ottawa.

Only later did he decide to do a law degree.

"It seems like a lifetime ago, when The Royal Gazette was still on Reid Street. I think I was only about 14 or 15 when I first started there as a summer student. Ted Sayer was editor and I remember him telling me, `If you've got something to say, write it down'. When I asked him where, he said, `In the newspaper, of course'. So that's how I started.'' He recalls that many of his vacation jobs were at the Mid Ocean News under then-editor David White, who, he says, gave him a "wonderful'' variety of features to write. "I even did show reviews, and I loved that! Working there was a great help because you have to form the discipline of actually listening to what people say, of sifting out what is important and then you develop the ability to report it in a way that will inform as well as entertain. If you can master that, I think you should do very well in life. The pay was lousy, but it was great fun, and you felt you were on the cutting edge of life. Just think: I got to interview the Canadian premier, John Diefenbaker, and Ray Charles! Two wonderful experiences.'' Among the long list of summer students who "served time'' at the paper, Rhodes Scholar Dr. Tim Lancaster is generally acknowledged as being one of the most brilliant. Believed to have been only the second Bermudian to achieve a double first in English at Oxford, he then switched to medicine, completing a fellowship in internal medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is currently back in Oxford in general practice and conducting research at the University.

He also achieved two `firsts' as a student reporter, not only winning, together with current Royal Gazette assistant editor Adrian Robson, the Ridgway Award for Journalism for their controversial St. George's cruise ship story -- but also collecting the US Inland Newspaper Association's award for the same piece.

Mr. Tim Hodgson, now editor of the Mid Ocean News, followed in his footsteps.

Having won the Gavin Maxwell Prize for Literature, named for his former fellow pupil at Stowe School, Mr. Hodgson has also received the Ridgway and the US Newspaper Association awards for his story on Bermuda's role in American strategic nuclear planning.

In his view, "People who have stars in their eyes should never take up journalism, they will soon be disillusioned. As a reporter, you see and hear things that never reach the general public, so you tend to develop a healthy contempt for many public figures and institutions. I would describe the role of a newspaper journalist as being across between a policeman and a pathologist.'' Another Rhodes Scholar who worked at the Gazette was Mr. Warren Cabral, now a lawyer with Appleby, Spurling & Kempe. After Saltus Grammar School, and Upper Canada College, he took a degree in modern languages at McGill University and then studied law at Oxford.

"I worked there from 1976 until 1981. I think the very best thing about it was on a personal level. I met so many wonderful people there who have remained my friends ever since.'' Mr. Cabral says he is convinced that training received in the day-to-day reporting at the paper taught him how to write in concise English: "My current verbosity would be far, far worse if it weren't for my years at the Gazette !'' Recalling that he was included in a training scheme whereby a group of experts were brought in from the UK, he says, "These people had just finished training people on The People's Daily in China, so it was very high-powered. I learned how to ask questions, the importance of getting basic facts correct, to look for hidden conflicts of interest or undeclared stories.

You develop a healthy scepticism for what people tell you on the surface, and you learn to look beyond what they are saying. All this has been very useful in my legal career.'' Mr. Stephen Hankey completes the trio of Rhodes Scholars who were student reporters. He has recently given up his job in the law firm of Appleby, Spurling & Kempe to conquer fresh fields in Australia.

Former Bermuda High School student Mrs. Lisa Calhoun has become one of the most familiar faces in Bermuda since she began reading the nightly News Nine on ZBM. She began her career in the media, however, during the summer of 1988, in the newsroom of The Royal Gazette , in the last year of her honours degree in English from the University of Waterloo in Ontario. She subsequently worked for two years as a reporter on a Canadian newspaper.

"I had thought of going into law, but during that summer at the Gazette , I discovered that I like reporting. So I decided to pursue that while I was still young and maybe do law when I get to the mid-life crisis!'' She agrees that the daily reporting of Magistrates Court was a good place to start: "It teaches you to get the facts straight. And, of course, you learn how to pick out the meatiest part and make it the lead. From that point of view, TV is the same as print journalism.'' Life at the Gazette , she recalls, was "a lot of fun. I sometimes worked with Steve Mundy on the Living section and that was great, especially the day he was trying to take pictures of himself para-sailing.'' Another high profiler is Ms Paula Cox, former PLP Party candidate and now its Press Officer. In between gaining a degree in Political Science from McGill University in Montreal and a diploma in International Law from Manchester University, she worked at The Royal Gazette .

"Yes, it helped me, especially in my capacity as PRO for the PLP. I'd always been interested in writing. But I really wanted to be a best-seller! I did court reporting, but I especially remember a feature I did, a real cloak-and-dagger affair where I secretly interviewed a drug pusher, under conditions of anonymity. I thought that was very exciting.'' The most recent student to `graduate' to the permanent team of news reporters is Miss Libby Francis, who spent two summers on the `cub' beat while studying Communications at Mount Vernon College in Washington, DC.

"I had always wanted to work with people in a community setting, so Communications seemed a natural. Working here helped me with my writing technique, because at school, you only learn one method. It also teaches you how to condense words. When I went back to school, I found I wasn't `wasting' so many words in my papers.'' She joins permanent staffers, assistant editor Bill Zuill and RG Magazine senior writer Mrs. Robin Zuill, who both "vacationed'' at the Gazette .

Still away at school, and still on the roster of summer students are Mr. Tory Creighton and Miss Erica Martin.

Says Mr. Creighton, who after school in England, went on to do journalism at Andrews University in Michigan, "I find that I know more than my classmates about the practical side of journalism, and since I was at the Gazette , I find I can work without constant supervision.'' Besides doing his share of court reporting ("if people familiarised themselves with the court system, they would find it less intimidating''), Mr.

Creighton has also worked on features. He hopes to become a Royal Gazette reporter: "I love the work and the people. For the next five years or so, I would like to be on the news beat, out meeting people.'' Ex-Warwick Academy student Erica Martin is in her final year of a History degree at Northeastern University.

"I wanted to try journalism, to see if it's something I would like to pursue as a career. I've certainly learned things here I would never have learned in a classroom!'' One of the perks, she admits, is "knowing what's going on before the rest of the Island finds out.'' She too, says she likes the "nice atmosphere'' in the news room: "It's so boring, sitting in an office. Here, no two days are ever the same and you never know what's going to happen next. Everyone has been very helpful, very willing to show me the ropes.'' Quite often, she says, students have to do the more tedious and routine assignments, "although there's always a good chance you'll be up to something exciting. I really enjoyed interviewing Miss Bermuda, meeting a group of gays from the Human Rights Alliance, going out on a tall ship, and meeting the Governor while he was doing his Christmas rounds at the hospital. And some of the court cases are really interesting to follow.

"Yesterday,'' she says with a broad grin, "I had to watch a body (it was in a bag!) being hauled out of the bushes. There wasn't time to feel upset because I was so busy trying to get down all the details of what had happened.

It can be such an exciting job -- and I really love it.'' PHOTO Mr. David L.

White Mr. Tim Hodgson Mr. John Barritt, MP Senior Magistrate The Wor. Will Francis Mr. Warren Cabral Ms Paula Cox Mrs. Lisa Calhoun Miss Carol Parker Miss Libby Francis Miss Erica Martin Mr. Tory Creighton.