Andreia Simão, 24 years old, and a journalism student with emphasis on the radio.  

Journalism didn't come naturally to her. It arrived eventually, but it took a while. For years the idea of being anything in the future, scared her. The pursuit of a career made her change majors, while trying to grow as an individual. Today she's able to look back and admit that the 2 ½ years spent in law school weren't the best, but surely helped her learn valuable things that she wouldn't have learned anywhere else.

Then, she met ESCS. With ESCS, great opportunities followed, like ESCS FM, where she managed bi-monthly episodes of a podcast called "carta aberta" and hosted several music interviews on the show "showcase", REC, broadcasted by Radio Renascenca and ESCS Magazine where she was editor-chief of the department of plastic and performative arts. 

Focused on pursuing a journalist career and entering the radio hosting universe, this is her next step, seeking internships and participating or developing interesting projects such as RDE, that will help her grow and learn as much as she can. Because one thing she has learned so far in life is that you can always learn a little bit more tomorrow.

Artyom Laptev is a 21-year-old student of journalism. Born in Belarus, Artyom came to Portugal early in his life. Early enough to effectively study Portuguese, however, also old enough to remember his Belarusian heritage and the Russian language.
Currently, in his 16th year in Portugal, Artyom aspires to become a journalist, keeping his options open in which area he wishes to dedicate his talents.
Although the pandemic halted his studies, he carries on with his extracurricular activities. Being a reporter in E2, a show on RPT2, and a radio announcer/reporter in ESCS FM, for over 3 years.
Passionate about becoming a journalist since high school, Artyom enjoys post-production but he lives and thrives while he’s in the field.

Beatriz Figueira is 20 years old and has loved music since she was a little girl. Maybe that passion for sound waves is what made her fall in love even harder with radio.

She’s in her last year of a journalism degree and sees herself working in a radio station, in front of the microphone or even behind the scenes.

Since she has entered ESCS, she has had a lot of experiences. ESCS FM, the school’s radio station, has always been like a second home to her - besides participating in many radio shows as a host and as a reporter, she was also the coordinator of “Showcase” for two consecutive years, in which she has also interviewed musicians. Moreover, was the editor of the music section of ESCS Magazine and has also written a number of reports for the school's journal - 8ª Colina - in which she interviewed portuguese musicians like Tiago Bettencourt, Capitão Fausto, Samuel Úria and Noiserv. In her free time she enjoys playing with escstunis, the academic tuna of ESCS.

She adores knowing people, places and their stories - she has always learned so much from them. It's through the immersiveness of their voices and sounds that we get even closer to the narratives.

This project is a challenge that combines everything that excites her about journalism: getting to know stories and letting her creativity flow just enough to, when she shares them with people, make them feel as if they were there with her. 

Everything starts with a big idea. Beatriz Valente, 20 years old,  had the idea of becoming a journalist at 16 years old when a woman, who might’ve been named Monica, drew a circle on a piece of paper and told her that the difference between that figure and a bowling ball was, not only that the latter was three-dimensional, but also the information we had about the drawing in the first place. That experiment made her realize that it’s from information that we derive our perceptions of reality, and that is why it’s so important to be selective with what we take in. In that sense, perhaps her desire for transmitting information to people sounds altruistic; making sure that everyone is properly integrated in the environment that surrounds them. Her belief is that it is less about altruism and more about an obsession with wanting to know absolutely everything.

As with all things with inherent purposes- a lamp exists for illumination as a light switch exists to kill it off (and turn it on again)-  She has begun to precise that maybe her purpose is to empty her head of ideas and bring them into a state of material existence, where they become real, grow, flourish, and cease to be hers alone. At least that is what makes sense to her. She loves good conversations.

Francisco Sezinando, 21 years old, is an aspiring Journalist who has the dream of working in the best profession in the world. In 2020  was the winner of the Megalizzi - Niedzielski Prize, the European Commission's prize for aspiring young European journalists.

 Alongside his path and degree in Journalism he discovered the artistic side of Journalism and its beauty in being able to tell stories in a careful, crafted and informed way. As an aspiring journalist, he sees reality from a different perspective, analyzes current events and thus tries to create the best journalistic pieces.

He walks everywhere with his headphones on, because anywhere he is, he is listening to a report full of sounds and melodies or a good podcast that makes him think about the issues discussed. It's this unique experience of the sound that makes him convey that he is here to deepen his knowledge and learn even more about what's best in radio in Europe.

Gonçalo Borbinha is passionate about communication. In today's society - submerged in false news, disinformation, confusion, division, ideological extremism - it is vital to find someone who wants to tell stories, real stories. He has the ambition to become a complete journalist, according to his way of living, to know a little bit of everything: politics, economics, society, sports, health, science, culture, and so on. In addition to his taste for these areas, he’s also seduced by different forms of communication: radio, television and written press, for that reason he thinks he will fit well in multiplatform and multimedia journalism, dealing with various subjects.

His dream is to be able to be the mediator between reality and his audience. His ears, nose, mouth, hands, feet and eyes have to represent his audience and bring them the stories they need to know.  There is a characteristic that few people mention and that he noticed that he has in common with some incredible school teachers and journalists that he sees as an example, in addition to their insatiable curiosity: being a child. Being a child is being creative, it's not easily accepting no, it's driving for passion, it's creating his own wings to fly. As someone once said, a creative adult is a child who has survived and that is his philosophy.

Gonçalo Martins, 20 years old, is taking a degree in Journalism, currently in the final year. He has a special interest in working on television and radio. During his studies, he has part of many extracurricular activities; Editor-in-chief in E2, a TV show produced by many students of the School of Communication and Media Studies and transmitted in RTP2 (public TV broadcaster in Portugal); also writes news on ESCS FM, the students' radio.

Looking to the past, his passion for journalism started at home when he was a child. Even though he didn't understand all the news, he liked to see television reports. He stays fascinated with the TV anchor and reporters, saying to the people what was happening in the world. When in primary school, he folded A4 papers and wrote in it as if he worked in a newspaper. 

It is difficult for him to say no to a challenge. His friends advised sometimes that it can be bad. But he 's stubborn. When he receives an opportunity, he finds a time and goes on, even when he’s not so comfortable with the topics. Because that is the way to grow up. That’s why he accepts almost everything everyone proposes to him. And that’s why he plays volleyball in his free time. Not a great player, but maybe he will be one day. And he has to take a break from his daily life.

Mariana Serrano set one’s heart on  journalism. After a bachelor in Escola Superior de Comunicação Social, is starting her masters degree in ISCTE. In the previous three years, has been a writer in “Oitava Colina” and “ESCS Magazine”, a reporter in “E2”, a host in “ESCS HUB” and a broadcaster in “ESCS FM”. With some works published in “Jornal Público” and “Rádio Renascença”, was one of the awarded students in ReportEU and also the creator of "Ás Paredes, Confesso '', a podcast focused on social causes.

Even when the schedule is tight, she can always find time for one more thing. Especially if the work is related to radio. Even though Mariana couldn’t tell if the love for radio came from being an enthusiastic talker or an attentive listener, the feeling is there for sure.

Michelle studied Journalism as a treatment for her undying curiosity, and after having finished the course she remains having plenty of questions (but better prepared ones). She is 21, and has lived in 9 different cities and 2 different continents. One day she got her first camera and it went really quickly from being a picturesque scene of a kid trying to use manual focus to her parents not having where to store more photos. After having learned how to make websites, she never stopped creating new pages about her many interests - from 90s albums to what are the best beaches in the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Things got more serious than a blog when she got into the course of her dreams in college. Tried a little bit of everything - radio, TV, press, online media and even made a short movie. Well, putting like this it makes more sense to just admit she tried a lot of everything, in big bulky portions and always ready for the next one. Likes trivia games, discovering songs that were never heard before, video shooting days that on paper seemed impossible and interviews that just flow like talking to an old friend.

Rita Silva, 21 years old, is a recent graduate of Journalism. Over the past three years, she'd nurtured a deep sense of admiration for the journalistic profession. In June, her team won the first edition of ReportEU, which is an initiative of the European Commission for journalism students.

Ever since she was little, she has liked to think through writing, valuing above all the power of words. During the degree, she tried the television branch, fell in love with the microphone and surrendered to multimedia journalism. By combining various media formats in the service of information, she realized that there is now a new way of doing journalism, which requires constant dynamism.

She sees journalism as a constant challenge of turning the so-called boring topics into interesting stories. In this profession, she’s attracted by the possibility of bringing to light themes that remain in the shadow of society. The incessant search for stories to tell, for the muffled voices of forgotten people, for different perspectives on known realities and for unexplored angles. The importance of showing the public the truth, always presenting the two sides of the coin. Credibility as a business model.