Journalism student becomes president of Society of The Creative School

Ria Sidhu, a third-year journalism student, was recently appointed president of the Society of The Creative School (external link)  (SCS) for the winter 2025 semester.

She was elected president following an internal nomination and voting process by the SCS Board of Directors.

Sidhu says she is excited to continue her leadership journey within The Creative School, previously acting as SCS’s journalism director and co-president of the Journalism Course Union (external link)  (JCU).

How did the conversation about leaving the JCU go with your co-president Haley Ford?

The hardest part was leaving them. Haley [co-president of the JCU] knew since December as I told her there was a possibility it could have happened at our last SCS board meeting. She was fully supportive.

And I’m fully confident that she’ll do a good job to take care of the team [the JCU] and carry it the rest of the way this semester. It’s hard taking on a position that should be two people into one, so I am still going to be around to support her, I’m just upstairs in the SCS office instead of downstairs [in the RCC].

What’s your advice for the JCU as you leave the team?

Help each other out. Teamwork makes the dream work to the core. You’ve been elected into those positions to represent your year or other duties, so do the job and you’ll be fine.

Was there something in particular that drew you to being president of SCS?

I think managing a bigger team, but also representing the entire Creative School. I enjoyed my time, representing the program [as journalism director], but representing nine schools and 12 programs from across the faculty is probably the biggest thing.

I was helping with little things as director, funding wise, hiring, I helped out in the fall, and so it was kind of just building up to this leadership wise. 

How would you describe your leadership style?

I'm someone who likes to listen to what other people want or are looking for. I'm pretty open minded when it comes to the way people already do things. I’m going into this presidency with the same people as before, the exact same directors are already comfortable in the way they're doing things. So I'm not here to change things. I'm here to understand how they're doing things and then I'll come in and meet them and support wherever they need support. 

You’ve been under the leadership of two other presidents at SCS, what are your own hopes and goals for the semester?

My biggest thing, I would say, is to manage things. Be two steps ahead and manage things before they kind of start. 

Always getting an extra set of eyes on documents, forms and posts before they go out and making sure everything is lined up before it goes out to the student body.

Then managing the internal team as well, I want to be sure that the team trusts me as their leader and things like that. So being able to be there for them, make sure that they're supported wherever they need and I'm available to help if they need anything. 

I'm here to support students. I'm ready to give my time and energy into the whole Creative School right now. 

What should Creative School students and Journalism students specifically know about SCS?

The biggest thing is that students can apply for up to $10,000 of funding for student projects (external link) . If you have your own project, film, or exhibition. We’ve paid for flights to conferences, a whole range of things.

We also have school events that you can attend and make connections within The Creative School [and] your program. We have things like galas, breakfast with SCS where you get free food. We do orientation events at the beginning of every school year. We’ll do Google certificate events. We offer services across the board.

Journalism students are included in the up to $10,000 funding. We split the funding per school, it’s based on population, so it’s all equal. We’ve funded a bunch of magazines and papers through this opportunity. The Toronto Abnormal School is a student group under SCS now, New Wave and CanCulture have pitched us before for printing their magazines.

Any advice for students wanting to get involved in the university community?

Use your Google Calendar! Use your calendar and use your email because you can’t really do anything without those. Keep yourself organized and try new things.

Have your connections wide open. They always talk about being a journalist is all about having a network, but even just having a network is a big thing because you genuinely don’t know where people can go and they could need you.

Go into things with energy, don’t be lazy and if you commit to something, do it because you don’t want to let people down and then you lose a connection.

Anything you’d like to add?

I’m excited to be a president. I think this will be a really fun opportunity for me and I’m excited to lead the team and also keep my connections close with the j-school as well.

Where can students reach you for questions about SCS?

president@societyofthecreativeschool.ca

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.