Journalism student wins CAJ award

Journalism student Daysha Loppie won the Student Award of Excellence at the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) annual awards ceremony, held on June 1st at the Toronto Reference Library. The awards recognize achievements made in journalism over the past year.

“It was just this feeling of a deep exhale throughout my body,” said Loppie, who felt all her hard work pay off the moment her name was announced on the stage.

Loppie, who graduated last week, won the award for her outstanding feature story, Growing Up on the 36 Finch West (external link) , published by The Local. The story was written during Loppie’s fellowship at the publication in the summer of 2023.

In it, she captures the experience of living in low-income Rexdale, a city disconnected from those around it thanks to years of broken transit promises. 

“It was great to center my focus on this one story that had a big connection to not only myself and who I am as a person but also my family, the people around me,” she said.

“The Local was really great at respecting and kind of assisting and guiding [the story].”

Loppie’s award marked the first-ever CAJ win for The Local (external link) .

Loppie said her time as a journalism student at TMU put her in the position to make the right connections and get her foot in the industry door.

In the near future, she’s looking forward to attending graduate school and being the 2024 CJF-CBC/Radio-Canada Black Women’s Journalism Fellowship (external link) . She hopes to have her own publication one day.

Three Journalism at The Creative School alumni were also celebrated at the gala: 

Robyn Dootlittle, ‘06, and Carys Mills, ‘11, won as part of the Globe and Mail’s Secret Canada (external link)  team in the category of Freedom of Information Journalism. 

Jacqueline McKay,‘17, won in the Community Broadcast category for Sinixt want a say in Columbia River Treaty renegotiations (external link) .

Congratulations to all the winners!