Highlighting student accomplishments from the Fall 2024 semester

We asked Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) student publications to send in their best work from the Fall 2024 semester, written by students. From school news, to culture, sports, satire and community, journalism students have been hard at work. 

On The Record (OTR) is TMU J-School’s online newsroom, run by final-year undergraduate and graduate students. From written content, to broadcasts and podcasts, here is a highlight of the best work from OTR’s Fall 2024 journalists:

The Otter is a collective of journalists made up of students, professors, and alumni. They publish long-form narrative journalism approaching a wide range of topics with curiosity, rigor and spunk. 

Here are their top stories of the Fall 2024 semester:

The Toronto Abnormal School is TMU’s student-run satire magazine and self-proclaimed “funny paper.” From satirical stories on the most pressing TMU issues to comical cartoons illustrating various scenarios, here are The Abnormal School’s top stories of Fall 2024:

CanCulture is an online Canadian arts and culture publication at TMU, running since 2011. The student-led publication seeks to create communities over its various columns: literature, food, film, arts, music and more. Here are their top stories from the past semester:

Under editor-in-chief Joshua Chang, The Eyeopener continues its decades-old mission as TMU’s independent student newspaper. Last semester, the paper covered breaking news to satire and everything in between. Below are their top stories of Fall 2024:

HerCampus at Toronto MU is an online magazine dedicated to empowering college women. This past semester they covered everything from fashion to film to culture. Here are their top stories from Fall 2024:

Throughout the Fall 2024 semester, TMU journalism students and alumni were recognized for their excelling achievements in the field. Some highlights include:

Journalism students at TMU were recognized for their successes in the past academic year at this year’s J-School Awards Ceremony. From first-year undergraduate students to those in the final year of their master’s degree, the event honoured the excellence of budding journalists at TMU.

Not only did students celebrate with one another; they also had the opportunity to network with each other, J-School faculty and staff and guests from across the journalism industry, who made it down to the awards ceremony.

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners at the J-School Awards! You and all your peers make Journalism at The Creative School proud.

Masters of Journalism students Sahaana Ranganathan and Mark Henick won awards for their exceptional work in radio documentary and interviews diving into the ethical responsibilities of journalists. The School of Journalism is proud of your achievements!

In the words of School of Journalism chair Ravindra Mohabeer, “The work of Mark and Sahaana exemplify how, in two short years, the MJ program at TMU allows students to build on their experiences and backgrounds to accelerate their pathway toward being recognized and impactful professional journalists.”

Read more here.

At the university’s Annual Viola Desmond Awards and Bursary Ceremony, journalism student Cris Nippard accepted the 2024 Viola Desmond TMU Student Award. Nippard’s name was put forward by Michael Turco, manager of operations, administration, & equity at the School of Journalism.

“It made me feel like my hard work in the program and within my communities had been strong enough to be noticed by others,” Nippard said.

Read more here.

In October, Shahaddah Jack was appointed the city’s inaugural youth poet laureate. A spoken word poet and human rights activist, she will serve as a literary ambassador for the city.

The J-School is proud of your achievement!

Read more here (external link) .

Over the summer, J-School assistant professor Shari Okeke, students Chris Harrison and Danielle Reid and alumni, Libaan Osman, Nur Qorane and Adriel Smiley received the Mary Ann Shadd Cary Fellowship for Black Journalists.

The fellows joined the first-of-its-kind delegation of Black Canadian journalists organized by the centre to the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Convention and Career Fair in Chicago.

Read more here.

Every semester, Professor Shari Okeke’s class of final-year students produces a new season of their podcast, We Met U When. The audio production innovatively explores how news stories can have an impact on the people involved in them.

In Fall 2024, the class produced its third season of the podcast. The five-episode series, explores five different people–from a survivor of a police violence, to powwows, sex work, COVID-19 and a surprising finale on a micro-aggression faced by a producer of the podcast.

Catch up on the last season of We Met U When to tune into excellent student reporting on important issues.