Media & Public Relations Success Stories

From Monday, November 23, 2020, to Friday, January 29, 2021, the Faculty of Media & Creative Arts is hosting one-hour virtual information sessions at various times. Connect with our professors to hear how you'll get hands-on experience through Live Labs, performances, and ongoing work-integrated learning, and learn the industry-specific business skills needed wherever your career and your story take you. Your professional future starts here.

Find your session.

The 12-minute film, the pair's capstone project for the Journalism graduate certificate program, highlights efforts to combat child abuse in Uganda. The film grew out of a health and social change intiative led by Denmark's University College Absalon with partial funding from the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. 

Read more about Lau and Multani's film and their experience documenting the stories of women and children in Uganda.

She spoke to Humber Today about her work, what it's like to collaborate with the Duffer Brothers, and how she went from Humber Film to Hollywood sound editor. Read her full interview.

Humber is the only participating postsecondary institution and the five projects--available for online viewing for 12 hours starting at 7 pm--are the most by any participating institution.

Learn more about Nuit Blanche Toronto 2020, or find out more about the Humber-sponsored projects, including a short film by students in the College's Indigenous Transmedia Fellowship and a composition by a Bachelor of Music graduate.

The two were honoured for their work on the Bachelor of Public Relations Senior Fellow in Residence program, which brought Tobey, who runs her own agency, to Humber as the CPRS Senior Fellow in Residence. Males received the 2020 Award of Attainment and Tobey was named the CPRS Mentor of the Year. Read more about their innovative collaboration and the residency program.

Michelle Doyle and Cathrin Hagey, graduates of the creative writing program, were recently named to the CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist. Doyle was nominated for "The Intensive," an excerpt from her recently completed memoir about identity and personal development, and Hagey was nominated for "The Fringe," an essay about a difficult moment in her childhood.

Postgraduate journalism alumni Lucy Lau and Harmony Multani are nominated for the People's Choice Award at the Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival for their short film, Pearl Under Pressure: The Impact of Violence Against Children in Uganda. The film, which documents the work of the The Denmark Uganda Vietnam Exchange (DUVE), was shot over a week in January 2020 as part of an international learning opportunity through Humber College. Read more about the film and Lau and Multani's experience in Uganda.

What are you doing now and what was your career path to get here?

After gaining valuable experience in all facets of film work, I decided to specialize in Screenwriting and, a few years after graduating, found myself writing and directing my first feature film "Brewster McGee" which was shot on 16mm black and white film. Over the next several years, I continued my filmmaking journey here in Vancouver with my documentary short "Broken Palace" as well as my most recent feature film "A Legacy of Whining" (which I also acted in). I have just completed (along with my Producer/wife Maria) our new documentary "European Tour '73".

Tell us some of your favourite Humber memories.

The memories that I cherish most from my time at Humber are of the many great friendships that I made with my fellow Humber film students and the amazing (and sometimes nerve wracking) moments we spent getting our film projects across the finish line in time!

Also, upon arriving at Humber College, I immediately found the offices of the campus newspaper "The Humber Voice" and became the film critic for the paper for the next three years. This allowed me to received a press pass to cover the Toronto International Film Festival which was enormously exciting ("Hey! Is that Roger Ebert getting on the elevator...!).

How did Humber help you get where you are now?

I think the best thing about studying film at Humber College was how well it prepared me for real life in the film world. Just like in the film business, we had to learn how to exist and get along within a group of fellow crew members and be able to respect and listen to each other's creative ideas and to balance and be productive amongst all the different personalities and viewpoints involved. Also, the course's expectation of having us learn all the different functions and duties in the film world gave us a very well-rounded and valuable opportunity for some incredible hands-on learning.

Share a tip for upcoming filmmakers.

I think it's important for potential filmmakers to get a solid understanding of their craft - whether it's going to film school or learning online or especially going to as many movies as possible - that's key. When I went to Humber, I used to jump on a bus downtown almost everyday after class and see as many movies as I could (they used to have a collection of very cool repertory movie houses that featured amazing film titles from North America and around the world!).

Also, I think it shouldn't be overlooked just how important it is for filmmakers to get out and meet as many like-minded individuals as possible (yes, that dreaded word "networking"!). Making a film is a social experiment at all times and you will need as many people pulling in the same direction as you as possible. Get out of your comfort zone and start being part of your chosen community! Help other filmmakers on their sets, support other filmmakers and creatives - the love will make its way back to you!

Watch the trailers for Ross's films "A Legacy of Whining" and "European Tour '73".

Keisha graduated from Humber's Film & Media Production Program in 2018 and we caught up with her to find out more about the project.

Your work is prominently displayed at Dundas station in Toronto. Tell us more.

This is the end result of a year-long artist residency with VIBE Arts and RBC called "Desire Lines". VIBE is a non-profit organization delivering free arts education workshops to marginalized youth across the GTA, and as one of the emerging artists on the roster I was incredibly happy to be a part of this project. I produced a short film, the stills of which are being displayed alongside my headshot and poster on the TTC Pattison panels for one month in Dundas station.

Along with that, I am currently working on my next short film, which is being produced through another program at VIBE. I am an artist in the NExT program, which is a mentorship opportunity specifically for young, Black artists. I will be filming my project next month, which will then be exhibited at a gallery with an opening reception sometime in March.

What other projects have you worked on since leaving Humber?

I produced a short documentary/proof of concept for a future, longer film; I applied for and received a grant from ArtReach for a project I will be running this summer involving workshops and a gallery; and in general have been planning my next film projects.

I also work as a freelancer, so I have continued to do freelance editing and filming since graduation, as well as working as a contract facilitator at some non-profits in the city, as I am passionate about working with and mentoring youth through arts education opportunities.

How did your time at Humber prepare you for what you’re doing now?

I made some of my closest friends while at Humber, and I still work with my crew today. It feels good to be able to collaborate with each other outside of the school setting, and it's great when I'm able to pick who I want to work with.

Photo credit: Aniqa Rahman.

Find out more about Keisha at @keishajamesvideo and @thebrokegallery on Instagram. Her current project is on Instagram at @wtdtyfilm. You can also read more about the VIBE Arts projects here:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/12/27/vibe-arts-brings-emerging-artists-work-to-ttc-subway-stations.html
https://www.toronto.com/news-story/9781496-vibe-arts-brings-emerging-artists-work-to-ttc-subway-stations/

Competing in a field of 72 teams from six college, Team “A-Block” -- comprised of Nicolas Diaz, Emily Little, Julia Laing, and Chelsea Speck – created an app to address academic integrity. Check out some images of the app here.

The Adobe Creative Jam is a design challenge that asks students to create a visual or motion design concept based on a theme revealed at the event. After three hours and no rules, the teams present their work to the jury in front of a rapt audience. The 2019 Jam drew over 300 students from Sheridan, George Brown, Seneca, OCADU, Algonquin College, and Humber.

Congratulations to all the students who competed, and especially to Team “A-Block”!

To celebrate, we're singling out three standout original dramas created by Radio and Media Production students for a second-semester course. 

Learn More >

Convergence and sweat were silver medalists at the CSPA College General Magazine Hybrid Awards, with individual student journalists receiving 15 2019 Gold Circle Award commendations across 11 categories. This year’s CSPA Gold Circle Awards attracted 7187 news and magazine entries from college and university publications around the globe. A full list of individual award recipients is included below.

N03 Editorial Writing

- CERTIFICATE OF MERIT: Staff, "Tuition Poses Unnecessary Barrier to Upward Mobility, Success," Humber Et Cetera, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario;

N05 Personal opinion: Off-campus issues

- SECOND PLACE: Devin Nguyen, "No Easy Route to Good Journalism," Humber Et Cetera, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario;

N12 Personality profile

- CERTIFICATE OF MERIT: Ross Lopes and David Tuchman, "In Memoriam Harry Leslie Smith," Convergence, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario;

N14 Cultural feature

- SECOND PLACE: Elesha Nicholls, "Wingin It," Scribe, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario;
- THIRD PLACE: Kateryna Horina, "They Got Chills," Convergence, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario;
- CERTIFICATE OF MERIT: David Tuchman, "Paying To Play," Convergence, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario;

 N18 Briefs writing

- SECOND PLACE: Kateryna Horina and Austin Spearman, "News In Brief," Convergence, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario.

N29 Single sports photograph

- THIRD PLACE: Paige McGowan, "Bear Hunting," Humber Et Cetera, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario;

N37 Newsmagazine Cover

- CERTIFICATE OF MERIT: Chelsea Alphonso and Ross Lopes, "Decolonize It," Convergence, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario;

 N38 Page One Design

- CERTIFICATE OF MERIT: Et Cetera Staff, "Higher Education," Humber Et Cetera, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario;

N45 Alternative Story Presentation

- FIRST PLACE: Kit Kolbegger and Michelle Rowe-Jardine, "Predators of the Press," Convergence, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario;

N46 Design Portfolio of work

- SECOND PLACE: Chelsea Alphonso and Ross Lopes, Convergence, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario;

N50 Single Subject Feature Package, Double-truck (two-facing pages)

- THIRD PLACE: Staff, "Legalization Day," Humber Et Cetera, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario;

N51 Single Subject News or Feature Package, 3 or more pages or special section

- CERTIFICATE OF MERIT: Chelsea Alphonso, Ross Lopes and Austin Spearman, "Reporting People As People," Convergence, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario;
- CERTIFICATE OF MERIT: Paige McGowan and Art Team, "Centre Stage," Scribe, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario.

David Bezmozgis, co-ordinator of Humber’s creative writing graduate certificate, has been shortlisted for the Giller Prize for Immigrant City, his sophmore short story collection. Bezmozgis is no stranger to Giller nominations; his novels, The Free World and The Betrayers, were shortlisted in 2011 and 2014 respectively. The $100,000 prize will be presented at a gala on November 18.

Nicola Winstanley, co-ordinator of Humber’s Media Foundation program, is a finalist for a 2019 Governor General’s Literary Award in the Young People's Literature – Illustrated Books category. How to Give Your Cat a Bath is the fourth book by the acclaimed children's author. She is a past recipient of both an Ezra Jack Keats Foundation New Writer Award and a Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award nomination. The winners of the Governor General's Literary Awards, valued at $25,000 in each category, will be announced on October 29.

Congratulations, David and Nicola!

It is the most extensive grant dedicated to Canadian data-driven journalism.

The grant supports projects related to essential and underserved topics affecting Canadians. For the inaugural grant, Humber and Pulitzer are accepting proposals for stories related to Indigenous lands and property rights. The grant will provide up to $10,000 for a freelance journalist or team of journalists to explore a related story from a data-driven perspective.

"Opportunities for enterprise, data-driven journalism in this country are few and far between," says David Weisz, director of storyLAB at Humber College and professor in the Faculty of Media and Creative Arts. "Especially when it comes to covering Indigenous issues, where the cost of travel alone can cause newsrooms to lose their appetite for a particular story. This grant is to ensure that these important stories get told and told properly."

This grant opportunity is now open, and applicants are encouraged to submit their proposals by October 31, 2019. The winner(s) of the grant will be honoured at a cocktail reception on November 15, 2019.

Humber’s storyLAB leverages the multidisciplinary nature of the Faculty of Media & Creative Arts to create collaborative opportunities between Humber staff, students and industry partners. Humber’s Faculty of Media & Creative Arts is committed to fostering data journalism, most recently creating and hosting Data Driven, a data journalism symposium for coders, investigative reporters, developers and data advocates. 

Alumni were recognized in four categories for their work as directors, film editors and sound editors. The alumni nominees include

• Katrina Saville, Director/Writer - I Beat Up My Rapist (Best Short Film)
• Hugh Elchuk, Editor - Cardinal: By The Time Your Read This, Episode 302, Roman & Irena (Best Picture Editing – Movie For Television)
• Drew MacLeod, Film Editor - Letterkenny, Episode 501, We Don't Fight at Weddings (Best Picture Editing – Comedy or Family Series)
• Cailey Milito, ADR Editor - Northern Rescue, Episode 109, Wake Up (Best Sound Editing – Comedy or Family Series)
• Robert Hegedus, Supervising Dialogue Editor - Heartland, Episode 1207, Running Scared (Best Sound Editing – Comedy or Family Series)
  

Also nominated is professor and Post-Production program co-ordinator Lara Johnston in the Best Picture Editing – Feature Film category for her work on Mouthpiece. Lara previously won a Canadian Cinema Editors Award for her work on this film.

The DGC Awards will be presented at the DGC Gala on Saturday, October 26, 2019 at The Fairmont Royal York Hotel.

Assisted by Radio Humber student volunteers Jenifer Tait, Sarah Miranda, Kyle Drinnan - along with Noah Scanga and professor Greg MacDonald - the grade five students wrote, recorded and produced their very own podcast.

Radio Humber Outreach is an initiative of 96.9 Radio Humber - the campus and community radio station housed at the Humber College north campus in Toronto. Working with the teachers, Radio Humber offers select workshops to school children interested in learning about podcasting and the audio world.

Listen to the Silverthorn Public School student's podcast.

Lara's assistant editor on the film is a Humber graduate and two of her students also worked on other aspects of post-production for the film.

Directed by Patricia Rozema, Mouthpiece centers on Cassandra, an aspiring writer who, while struggling to compose a eulogy after the sudden death of her mother, comes to discover that her own rebelliousness is as much a response to the male gaze as her mother's conformity.

Mouthpiece is currently playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox until June 13th as part of their Canada's Top Ten programming. Get your tickets here.

The demo was created by a group of students which included Noel Marcial, Zachary Davies, Sam Fisher, Collin Skanes and Adam Odeh. Their proposal is for CREL -- Reel-FM -- which would feature music, soundtracks, contests, interviews, and talk - all related to movies. Each member designed their own movie-related show to become part of the station's schedule. Creative production and voice imaging by Noel Marcial.

Simran won for her Mountain Dew ad, which she both illustrated and designed. The final award (Merit, Silver, or Gold) will be announced at ADCC's Directions 2018 Award show on November 8th in Toronto. The ADCC is a Canadian non-profit, non-political group dedicated to encouraging excellence in Canadian advertising and design.

Congratulations on this accomplishment, Simran, and best of luck in November!

We would like to congratulate Radio Humber Diploma graduating student Josette LaFleur for being this year’s recipient of the Rene Roth Memorial Scholarship – an award given away to a student who demonstrates leadership, innovation, and creativity. Josette majored in News and would have been a favourite of the late Rene Roth- who taught sales and marketing in the Radio Humber Diploma program before losing her battle with cancer three years ago.

Also, congratulations to three Broadcast - Radio professors for winning multiple awards at the 2018 Crystals Awards held on Monday, May 7th.

Kyle Taylor, the Humber Radio Lab professor and Creative Director of Indie 88, picked up three awards for creative production excellence. Creative Production professor, Greg MacDonald of Bell Media, and his creative team won two Crystals Awards for creative excellence. And, finally, Writing for Radio professor, Larry MacInnis, also walked away with two Crystals Awards for creative writing excellence. All in all, it was a big, exciting night for RBD. It just goes to show that our students are being taught by the best in the business.

Congratulations to all on receiving these amazing honours!

The BNC awards are organized by the OCNA and recognize the outstanding work of local Ontario newspapers. The student-run newspaper, Humber Et Cetera, won first prize in the General Excellence category against stiff competition in the Colleges/Universities division.

This is a tremendous honour for our third-year diploma students who write, edit and lay out the newspaper, as well as second-year students who work as reporters and supply most of the copy. Thanks to Salem Alaton for his many years of hard work helping the students produce an award-winning paper. Thanks as well to Rob Lamberti who worked magic last year to help second-year students transform their academic writing into quality newspaper copy. And a special shout out to Marlee Greig, creative advisor, and technical support. Humber Journalism also won second place in the Student News Writing category for investigative pieces that a team of third-year students wrote about the $400K rebranding of IGNITE.

Congratulations to Tyler Bloomfield (now full-time CBC contract), Brandon Austin (co-founder of a thriving social media management firm with major clients), Alana MacLeod (full-time Global News contract), Erian Amor De Los Reyes (full-time CBC contract) and Ken Kellar (moving to Winnipeg to pursue journalism there).

Michael Downey, a student at Humber’s Radio Broadcast Diploma program, and his student collaborators have won best newscast in the category of Audio Radio Newscast at the 2017 Broadcast Educators Association of Canada National Student Awards.

The award-winning entry was a regularly scheduled newscast on 96.9 Radio Humber in which journalism students Anna O’Brien, Tyler Bloomfield, Alanna Fairey and Brandon Choghri travelled to Washington, DC to report on the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump. In Toronto, Radio Humber’s Pasquale Pettinicchio and Michael Downey alternated between broadcasting from the anchor desk and corresponding with the reporters in Washington.

The award will be presented to Michael and his collaborators on Friday, May 26th at the National Students Awards Gala at the Sheraton Centre Hotel in Toronto. At the gala, a clip from the award-winning newscast will be showcased for those in attendance. The newscast is also eligible for the President’s Awards (Best Audio/Video), which will be announced and presented at the gala. The annual BEAC National Awards is a program that recognizes and rewards creative and technical ingenuity and excellence in students attending a radio, television/video or new media/animation program.

Congratulations to all students and faculty involved in this amazing achievement!

Broadcasting - Radio diploma students Sean Towgood, Tevin Guthrie and Chris Wheeler placed second for their work on “Stigma” in the same category.

The Emerge Media Awards celebrate and showcase the achievements of the best writing, editing, videography, audio, graphic design, communications and public relations work at the postsecondary level.

Selected by an independent panel of judges from 313 submissions, eight winning individuals/teams represented various postsecondary institutions across the country.

Eight schools participated in the the first annual Advertising Industry competition to secure  a coveted spot in the Orange Juicer Apprenticeship Program at the The Grip Agency.

Each school was given 6 weeks to prepare a campaign book and presentation for Honda Civic. Six teams made it through to the final round of presentations including 3 Humber teams, 2 Seneca teams and 1 OCAD team.

Channel Six left a memorable impression on the judges with strong creative presentation skills, as well as the conviction and passion they had for their idea.

The winning team included:

• Copywriters from the Advertising Copywriting postgrad program Shane Terry and Christina Roche
• Art Directors from the Advertising and Graphic Design diploma program Laura Córdova and Andrea Por
• Account Managers from the Advertising - Account Management postgrad program Gosia Socha and Dhara Naik

The film will screen as part of the 16th Annual Canada's Top Ten Film Festival in January 2017.

The students worked on an important campaign to help bring attention to the dangers of Fentanyl. The focus of the campaign is a website, facethefentanyl.ca which profiles "Tina Espey, 19, Cole Lockie, 21, Tyler Campbell, 17, Jake Bodie, 17, and Jessie Kolb, 24, as well as resources and information about overdoses and fentanyl." Toronto Police Chief, Mark Saunders told the Toronto Star, "the campaign is “just a starting point for this very issue . . . we can’t just arrest our way through this thing.”