The competition she won was organised by The Guardian and Christian Aid.

She said: "I can't tell you how much it means to be going to report on the issues that I am most passionate about. I promise that I'll do my best to meet Guardian standards. It's a bit scary, to tell the truth."

Before starting the course at Trinity and All Saints in January 2002, Catherine worked as a press officer for Oxford-based environmental charity Earthwatch.

She said: "It was when I was working in that role that I realised I wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to be the one writing the stories, not feeding them to the media."

Back to the training index