I’ve made some really great friends in my time at uni, but one of the nearest and dearest to my heart has to be Maysoon Bastoni. Let’s flash back to summer 2012 – I’d just accepted my unconditional offer to study at City, and I was starting to panic. I was moving to London! Alone! Who was going to be my friend? Maysoon answered my prayers via Facebook message – “Hi. You seem to be the only cool person on our course. Do you want to be friends?” And so our friendship began.
Over the years I’ve grown to love Maysoon’s silly, fun-loving personality. This year we’re even flatmates, and she’s always down to have a good time… Or just eat Shake Shack and listen to me cry about boys. Read about her cool internship and TV presenter aspirations below.
Name: Maysoon Bastoni
Major & Year of Study: BSc Media Studies and Sociology, 3rd year
Country of origin: Palestinian and Moroccan, but raised in London and Amman, Jordan
Relationship status: In a relationship
We’re about to start third year! What are your best and worst memories of City so far? The best memory would definitely have to be my first year. I lived in London until I was 9 so it wasn’t a completely unfamiliar city to me, but when I moved into halls I was able to discover the city in a whole new way by meeting so many people. I had so much fun! My worst memory is probably just realizing that we are so close to finishing uni. These years have been the best of my life, but on the other hand I’m excited to start a new chapter!
You’re right, first year was so much fun! What did you get up to this summer? I interned at Bliss radio station at home in Amman, Jordan. Half of my course is media studies so it was super cool and interesting to see such a big part of modern media “up close and personal”. I got to work as a co-host with the main radio presenter, which was amazing and a huge opportunity – I’m very lucky to have been able to experience that as an intern.
That sounds so cool! How do you think living in the Middle East affected your internship? What kind of issues and politics did you have to discuss? Every day I would open either political, social or economic debates with listeners via social media. Sometimes I discussed topics that are pretty general throughout the world – like the declining popularity of Facebook – but other times the topics were quite sensitive to citizens of the Middle East. For example, this summer the Palestinian/Israeli conflict made international headlines, but it was especially personal for me as I am half Palestinian.
Do you plan to continue working in this field after graduation? I had so much fun at my internship and it made me realize that I really would like to work as a presenter, preferably on TV but also on radio. I guess I’ll have to see what third year and the future holds for me!
Sounds great! Thanks for chatting, Mays J