Summer 2021
As the end of summer approaches, we begin to shift our focus to one of the most exciting times of the year. September is always filled with an incredible amount of enthusiasm as we get set to welcome new and returning students to our school to continue their academic journey. The past 18 months have been difficult and challenging. We are entering this upcoming academic year with a clear roadmap for delivering an outstanding and safe experience. Are there unknowns? Sure. However, I want to emphasize that the safety of our students, faculty and staff is our top priority. The College has been focused on the safety of our community and will continue to lead us forward with safety as the guiding principle.
As much as the pandemic has disrupted our "normal" way of doing things, it has also inspired significant change. The exciting news and accomplishments in this edition of Storyteller have all been achieved in a virtual environment. So what was once a monumental shift has turned into a springboard for our students, graduates, faculty and staff to excel in new and exciting ways.
I think I say this in every message I write, but it bears repeating; our outstanding students, graduates, and dedicated faculty and staff always amaze me. This is another jam-packed edition that features so many great stories, including a Broadcasting graduate's documentary that will soon air on Discovery+; the announcements of $360,000 in Funding to Create Gender-Affirming Online Education Resources for Youth and the East FM 102.7 Music Scholarships for our Music Industry Arts and Performance students; our graduates winning numerous awards at Ubisoft Toronto Next, the National Advertising Awards; the Canadian Public Relations Society Ace Awards; a Children's Media student being accepted into the Transmedia Zone at Ryerson; and Centennial College Press' first novel, written by faculty member Malcolm Kelly, is now available on Amazon. There are so many exciting stories — too many to mention in this short space. I encourage you to read each of the incredible stories below and to celebrate these amazing achievements with us.
The year ahead will surely inspire more great work from the community of the School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design. I look forward to sharing those stories with you soon. I hope you enjoy this edition of Storyteller as much as I do.
Nate Horowitz
Dean, School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design, Centennial College
Grads Win Big at the 2021 Ubisoft Toronto NEXT Competition
Two School of Communications, Media Arts and Design graduates took home first place at this year's Ubisoft Toronto NEXT competition! Game – Art graduate Maria Kniazieva won the 3D Art category, and Animation graduate Yourim Kim won the Cinematic Animation category.
Public Relations Students Launch "The Deep Listening" Campaign to Highlight Indigenous Communicators and Communications
Students in the Public Relations - Corporate Communications program had the opportunity to work with The Communicators Collective - a group that fosters diversity, equity and inclusion in the communications profession - for their Storyworks course.
The students launched "The Deep Listening" campaign and crafted a podcast, review of Gregory Younging’s Elements of Indigenous Style, and a blog post that provides recommendations for organizations looking to improve Indigenous relations.
Advertising Students Win Gold at the National Advertising Awards
The National Advertising Challenge is a unique competition where more than 200 advertising agencies and creatives from across Canada are provided a brief created by some of the country's top brands. The competition is in its 15th year, and there have been over 2.5k entries to date.
This year two of our Advertising – Creative & Digital Strategy students, Lindsay Newton and Christina Gregoire, won Gold for their work titled Reunite, for their entry against the student brief provided by the popular fashion retailer, Simons.
Dance Student Directs and Choreographs Commercial for Silencia Eyewear
Mikaela Rojas, a recent graduate of the Dance Performance program, had the opportunity this year to dive into a creative project for her Storyworks course that brought together her creativity and skills in dance to produce an outstanding, professional commercial for her client Silencia Eyewear.
GRAD PROFILE
Jasmine VANSToNE
Jasmine Vanstone, a 2021 graduate of the Arts Management program, is an emerging professional who is flourishing in her field with an abundance of knowledge and expertise to back her up.
She completed her program with an internship, which turned into a job, at the Toronto-based, non-profit, Art Starts. She now works as a Program Coordinator for the organization in addition to her work as a cohort member of SKETCH Working Arts’ NextUp! Leaders Lab.
Contemporary Journalism Students Highlight Small Businesses and the Impact of COVID-19
Contemporary Journalism students worked collectively in their Entrepreneurial Reporting course to create a series of articles focused on small businesses and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The project, Spotlight on Small Biz, consists of 29 stories written by 29 students which were published on the Toronto Observer – a multi-platform news organization run by students in our journalism programs.
Broadcasting Graduate's Documentary "No Responders Left Behind" Coming to Discovery+
Kelly Zemnickis, a graduate of the Broadcasting - Radio, Television, Film & Digital Media program, originally intended to create a short documentary about first responders not receiving adequate health benefits and compensation after the September 11th attacks in 2001.
Over the past six years, and in collaboration with former The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, activist John Feal and FDNY hero Ray Pfeifer, the No Responders Left Behind documentary has turned into a full-length feature film about the fight for justice.
Centennial Receives $360,000 Grant to Create an Online Interactive Gender-Affirming Education Resource for Youth
Centennial College has received $360,000 in federal funding from the Community College Social Innovation Fund offered by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to create an online educational, gender-affirming resource for young people who are gender independent, trans, intersex, and non-binary.
The project was developed and will be lead by Dr. Chris Jackman, Chair, Arts & Design, and will involve the professional leadership of faculty members Pamela Kostur and Sarah Fewson. The team will also work closely with Centennial’s School of Community and Health Studies, and Applied Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Services (ARIES) team.
The interactive resource will develop over the next two years, with the support of an advisory council, multiple health specialists, and a youth advisory group to help ensure that the information reflected in the resource is both accurate and presented in an engaging way that encompasses the experiences of the project’s target demographic.
STUDENT PROFILE
Kai Little-White
Kai is a current student in the Children's Media program but is no stranger to the world of creating, producing, and children’s entertainment. With an expansive background in the industry and an abundance of opportunities she continues to embrace, Kai's passion and dedication shines through her work.
PR Students Take Home 3 Awards at the 2021 Canadian Public Relations Society Toronto Chapter ACE Awards
Students in Public Relations - Corporate Communications launched two major projects during their program: The Future of PR Looks Like Us & COVID Conversations. Now graduates of the program, it was announced their projects took home Gold and Silver at the CPRS Toronto 2021 Virtual ACE Awards. Congratulations!
Students Work with Ontario Professional Engineers Foundation for Education
The Ontario Professional Engineers Foundation for Education (FFE) worked with students on various aspects of a major company project. One group of students from the Interactive Media Management created personas and user journeys, while an additional student from Centennial worked on the communications and writing elements. The clients were extremely impressed by the work the students completed, in addition to the immense professionalism they displayed.
FFE is the official charity for supporting the future of the Ontario engineering profession, and their mission is to nurture the next generation of Ontario engineers by providing them with financial assistance, connecting them to mentors and employers, and inspiring them to bring out their academic and leadership excellence.
Photography Student Wins Silver at the 2021 Virtual Skills Ontario Competition
Centennial won 20 medals (6 Gold, 8 Silver, and 6 Bronze) at the 2021 Virtual Skills Ontario Competition, including a silver medal for Photographyby Photography student and Graphic Design graduate, Elizabeth Smith!
The East FM 102.7 Music Scholarships
The East FM 102.7 Music Scholarship was designed to support students wishing to pursue a career in the music industry. Launching this fall, two $1000 scholarships will be awarded annually for seven years. The scholarship will be awarded to a full-time student who is in good academic standing, who demonstrates financial need, and is enrolled in one of the following programs:
- (6450) Music Industry Arts and Performance
- (6400) Performing Arts Fundamentals
Linda Barlow, Director of Development, Major Gifts and Campaigns at Centennial says, "We are thrilled to have the support of East FM 102.7. This scholarship will be a meaningful gift to students and provide them with much needed financial support."
Students can apply for the scholarship via the College's Doorway to Dollars application.
Ellin Bessner Hosts New Podcast "The CJN Daily" with Canadian Jewish News
Ellin Bessner, who has recently left full-time teaching in the Journalism program after 17 years, has dove into the world of podcasting. She is now the host of The CJN Daily – a new podcast with Canadian Jewish News that provides listeners with bite-sized pieces of breaking news happening daily, but with a Jewish angle.
Image Credit: Sarah Zahavi, Designer
Sports Journalism Instructor Malcolm Kelly's New Book "SPROG" is Available on Amazon
Sprog, the first novel published by Centennial College Press, is now available on Amazon! This debut novel by Sports Journalism Coordinator, Malcolm Kelly, follows five young men as they journey to join the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941.
To find out more about Malcolm's writing process, be sure to check out our feature on the book.
Instructor Margot Van Sluytman Writes & Teaches New Course: "Your Voice Matters - Expressive Writing for Employability"
Centennial Instructor Margot Van Sluytman has created a course called "Your Voice Matters - Expressive Writing for Employability" that will launch this fall. Centred on the impact the pandemic has caused on the workforce, this course allows students the opportunity to reflect on their personal journey within employment, which is something that may have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Margot shares that it will also teach students how to use the gifts they already possess to create, build, and nurture a wide range of relationships, in order to enrich job prospects and effectively use post-employment connections.
The course material will work in tandem with a book Margot crafted, which includes poems and writing assignments for students to analyze and tackle together.
Broadcasting Students Complete Virtual Internships with the Festival of International Opera
A group of students in the Broadcasting – Radio, Television, Film & Digital Media program had the opportunity to intern at an Italian opera festival this summer – virtually, that is.
The Festival of International Opera (FIO ITALIA) collaborated with the School of Communications, Media, arts and Design to provide students with internships for their summer opera program. The students participated in four Italian opera film productions where they collaborated with industry experts. Each of the film-like opera performances that students worked on during their internship were streamed internationally. They received a film credit on the FIO ITALIA website. Students were also able to practice their music skills and Italian language skills in the process.
Jeffrey Dvorkin, Past Director of the University of Toronto Scarborough/Centennial College Journalism Program, Publishes New Book
Jeffrey Dvorkin, previous Director of the University of Toronto – Scarborough (UTSC) / Centennial College joint journalism program, recently published a book titled, Trusting the News in a Digital Age: Toward a “New” News Literacy.
He dedicates the book to students, "I was so inspired by them — by their commitment, their curiosity, and their passion to tell the right stories and to tell them in context. That, I think, has been the most gratifying thing I miss now that I have kind of stepped back and, I guess, officially retired. I just miss our students so much. They were just terrific, and they were constantly inspiring me.”
Micro-Credential and Part-Time Learning Virtual Open House
Join us September 9th on Zoom to learn more about our Micro-Credentials and Part-Time learning courses and certificates starting this fall.
Drop in from 6:30-8:00 pm to hear more about our courses and how to get started.
New Social Media Series Highlights Graduates
Where Are They Now? is a social media series that lives on the Story Arts Centre Instagram account. Every Wednesday, a new post is published highlighting a graduate who has gone on to work at an awesome job. Each grad provides insight into their day-to-day responsibilities, how they got into the career they are in, what they have been up to since graduating, and advice for students looking to follow a similar career path as them.
Credits:
Created with images by Sztrapacska74 - "surface abstract background" • rahu - "musical background guitar music background"