Class of 2024: Where Are They Now?

As we celebrate the Class of 2025, let’s take a moment to catch up with a couple of alumni from the Class of 2024 and see what they have accomplished this past year.

Han described a hunger to learn more and gain experience after completing J-School with a minor in PR, which led her to enroll in the Master’s program for Professional Communication.

Alongside her courses and working on her MRP, Han says she focused on building her portfolio through journalism and communication roles.

She was The Eyeopener’s digital producer for the 2024-25 school year and collaborated with other editors, managed the social media channels and created analytics reports.

She said, “It was a great learning opportunity.” 

As a freelancer, Han also edits a real estate podcast, which allows her to continue exploring podcasting as a career.

“It's been fun to dabble in creative [and practical] aspects [of] my degree.”

Favourite J-school course

JRN 801: Advanced Podcasting and Radio Doc. with assistant professor Shari Okeke.

Favourite J-school memory

The friends that were made. Seeing everyone come after their classes to the Venn and getting to know people outside of classes.

Advice for the Class of 2025

You're allowed to move at your own pace. 

Just focus, keep going, do the hard work and don't stress that you don't know what you're doing, you're in your 20s.

Favourite memory from Convocation

Every one of my friends [who] went up [on stage] got a huge roar of cheers from the crowd and I thought it was the sweetest thing ever. 

Those are my favourite memories, me screaming for my friends’ achievements and them cheering for mine.

Where do you see yourself a year from now?

If you had asked me this a few weeks ago, I would have said a corporate job in Toronto, but now that you asked me today…A year from now, I'd like to be working while travelling, it could be Europe or Asia.

I think I forget sometimes that I am so young and I have so much time. So I should do it now after my grad, after my dissertation, and celebrate those achievements.

In her final year of J-school, Masamra did her internship with CBC News Network in Toronto as a chase producer. 

After her internship ended and she accepted a contract at CBC, to her, it felt like she had already graduated and entered the workforce.

“I've been learning so much working alongside the hosts, I've been able to produce such great interviews and segments," she said. "You learn so much every single day."

Outside of her role as an associate producer, Masamra has been able to do some Arabic translation work.

"I helped out with an investigation for CBC Marketplace because they were trying to get in contact with someone but they couldn't speak English, only Arabic."

Masamra has had plenty of stories that she's proud to have been a part of. 

One that has stuck with her was in February when she was able to interview Yousra Abu Sharekh (external link, opens in new window) , a Palestinian humanitarian aid worker who had been displaced six times and at the time, was going to return to Northern Gaza. 

"She had never done live TV in her life...her whole life had been turned upside down, but she still made it happen for us." 

She remembers doing the pre-interview and getting emotional while listening to Abu Sharekh’s situation. 

"I feel honoured and privileged that I have these people who trust me with their stories."

Favourite J-school course

JRN 851: Newsroom masthead - On The Record

Favourite J-school memory

A lot of my memories are connected to AskToronto with Sania [Ali] and I doing those interviews.

Then, not related to Journalism, there was one day that is a core memory for me, on my last first day of my final year in Kerr Hall Quad, there were bouncy castles and play areas. I had so much fun with my friends.

Advice for the Class of 2025

Put yourself out there and apply for internships and opportunities. Really give it your all, even if you don't think that's what you want to do long term.

Favourite memory from Convocation

I recall my family and friends being so proud of me.

I remember my mom telling me afterwards that she was tearing up and saying, 'My baby's all grown up.' I'm the eldest child, so hearing that made me tear up as well.

Where do you see yourself a year from now?

I see myself probably being a reporter somewhere outside of Toronto. I don't know where, but I'm open to moving.

My next steps are maybe moving to a smaller market or another continent, just trying journalism out in a new space, [a] new environment and challenging myself.

While riding home on the subway one night, Hussein saw an opportunity posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) for Toronto Star’s Radio Room Internship, where reporters do quick hits from the breaking news desk.

“Getting the radio room was my foot in the door, and eventually, I walked in the room.”

He was also interested in the One-Year Journalism Internship for the publication and said he thought the Radio Room would be a great place to learn and build his portfolio for his internship application.

Since switching to his role as a staff reporter for the One-Year Journalism Internship, Hussein says he is grateful to have the trust and confidence of his colleagues to be a reporter for the Toronto Star.

Favourite J-school course

JRN 850: Internship.

Favourite J-school memory

It was March 17, 2024. TMU was hosting the U SPORTS men’s hockey national championship. It was the final U SPORTS recap that we ever did at The Eye for me and Daniella [Lopez] (Sport editors).

I remember the last game I was doing the recap for my internship. I was editing the recap our writer for The Eyeopener did, I was fasting and doing two classes.

I was on the ice after the game, and all the memories I had at the MAC for three years, from the first recap to the last, just flashed in my brain. 

Then, I’m wondering where Daniella is, and she’s at the top [of the bleachers], so I call her down to the ice so we can take photos together. We took our photo together, which is our photo for the special issue (external link) .

Advice for the Class of 2025

Before convocation, eat breakfast. That was the biggest mistake I ever made, sitting on that convocation chair for five or four hours, however long it was, starving, on three hours of sleep.

Favourite memory from Convocation

I’m the first person from my immediate family to graduate from university, and I’m the youngest. 

So, walking across the stage and seeing my family and my parents standing up, looking over to them and seeing them clap, I was like, ‘damn, this is a really special moment.’

Where do you see yourself a year from now?

I’m hoping to still be a reporter. I know I can do sports, but I’ve also grown to love other fields like crime since joining the Star.

So, hopefully I can be doing that, working, achieving things for my long-term ambitions.

Ashraf's journey to working at CTV started back in first-year when she wrote an article about her dreams of becoming a top journalist and being the first hijab wearing one on TV.

While doing her research, she found Ginella Massa, who is Canada's first hijab-wearing television reporter.

A couple of years later, Ashraf was working as a Career Boost student for Journalism at The Creative School, and she met Massa in person. Massa was a sessional instructor at the time.

She shared her love for talk shows and her goals as a journalist over a quick coffee chat with Massa.

"I had a full list of questions that I didn't look at once," she said. "We were talking like old girlfriends catching up, it was so nice."

Ashraf and Massa talked about how she could make connections with different programs and although nothing worked out right away, Ashraf started freelancing for CTV Your Morning the summer after graduation.

"It's about making those genuine connections, talking to people you look up to and having an open line of communication is so important."

Since then, Ashraf has been trained in talent coordinating for the show of greeting guests and being their go-to person for anything they need, making cue cards in the morning for their interviews. 

Her favourite part of the work is news writing. As the show runs daily from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., Ashraf comes in at 3 a.m. to write news stories for the show’s check-in points. She’s written for features and news segments, done background research, and put the questions together for the host’s interview packages.

“I wasn't able to meet them, but writing questions for Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh, that's the dream,” she said. “One day, I hope to be the person actually interviewing them.”

Besides working at CTV, Ashraf anchors for the Canadian branch of Muslim Network TV, an American-based company.

She gets to talk about the bigger news stories happening in the world, but also ones that she said may not get as much attention as they deserve.

“When I first started, ‘I think I'm okay at this, I'm good,’ and when I look back at this video, I want to cringe,” she said. “I saw this tweet once, ‘cringe is good because it means that you grow.’”

Favourite J-school course

JRN 314: Reporting for TV Workshop with Winston Sih.

Favourite J-school memory

Living on my own during my exchange in London. I got to be my independent self, I got to travel, meet so many friends and now, my uni friend group are the people I went on exchange with.

Advice for the Class of 2025

Networking is key. Meeting as many people as you can even within the classrooms.

I think it's so important to recognize that these classmates could be your coworkers or your bosses one day. You want to be the best version of yourself.

Favourite memory from Convocation

It was cool to finally walk across the stage and have my family cheering me on.

Seeing the professors that we've had throughout your undergrad journey cheering us on, smiling and hugging us, that was really beautiful.

Where do you see yourself a year from now?

Hopefully having a full-time job, ideally in New York and having some sort of broadcast work aside from my anchoring, because I do love entertainment.

Most things I do are news-focused, I want to start that path of dipping into anchoring entertainment.

Chang first joined The Eyeopener as the Fun and Satire editor during his final year of J-school. 

"I was gaining a lot of my own editorial skills during that time, partially from The Eyeopener, what I was learning up to that point and from my internship." 

He says he wanted to help students feel as confident about their work as the publication did for him. 

With that feeling and a vision for how he could help the student body through their reporting, he decided to run for editor-in-chief and won.

He applied his knowledge from J-school to his leadership as editor-in-chief directly and indirectly with not only his editors, but also while working with student groups on campus, contributors and collaborators.

“Opening up doors for people to figure out their own thought process, learning curves and time management skills and their own conflict resolution skills,” he said.

Looking back on his time as editor-in-chief, Chang said the small wins meant a lot to him during each production day.

“I've been proud of everything that we've put out.”

Favourite J-school course

JRN 801: Advanced Podcasting and Radio Doc. with assistant professor Shari Okeke.

Favourite J-school memory

My third year. It was refreshing to be back in person and to finally be able to use the equipment. 

There was so much excitement that year.

Favourite memory from Convocation

A defining moment when I crossed the stage, I dapped up one of my professors at the very end of the line. I was shaking people's hands, I shook the president's hand and one of my favourite professors, Adrian Ma was at the end and he just dapped me up. 

Advice for the Class of 2025

I would encourage people to not limit themselves and to continue to grow.

Where do you see yourself a year from now?

I want to continue this practice of timeliness, efficiency and quality. I want to be a journalist. 

I want to be a trusted feature reporter. I want to find someone's story and turn it into something so well articulated that people can understand it that much more.

After a summer of getting used to a life without school and waking up at 6 a.m. to choose courses, Syed joined the Dean’s Office at The Creative School as an international development assistant.

She is now an outreach and international development coordinator at The Creative School.

Syed works with The Creative School’s international partnerships that offer travel intensives and other educational opportunities, such as New York and Germany.

In her role, she also contacts students and ensures they’ve accepted their offers for the trips, helping our students travelling internationally and assisting inbound students (visiting TMU) with orientation.

“I’ve been able to prove myself as someone [who] is trustworthy; as someone who is organized and is reliable.”

Favourite J-school course

JRN 842: Building Your Brand: The Freelance Career with assistant professor Eternity Martis.

Favourite J-school memory

One was my exchange, six months of my life to study in Denmark.

I don’t speak the language, I didn’t know anyone beforehand really, but fully immersing yourself in a culture that is very different from what you’re familiar with is amazing.

The other was all the little things and social aspects. Going to get a coffee or visiting your friends on campus, I just really enjoyed all the time that we had together.

Favourite memory from Convocation

It was the morning driving to grad. I picked up my best friend and then we drove downtown. I was stressed because I thought I was going to be late due to traffic because of course, they had closed the Gardiner.

If she was not with me, I would have been stressed and crying.

Advice for the Class of 2025

Relieve yourself of the pressure of getting into your field and finding a job right away.

You will figure it out and what is meant to come your way will come your way, but adding that pressure on yourself doesn’t help.

Where do you see yourself a year from now?

I’m not gonna lie, I don’t see myself in Toronto, not in Canada. I’ve always loved travelling and experiencing different cultures. I see myself being very content with what I do in the future and I hope that becomes a reality.

These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Are you an alumni from the Class of 2024? Don’t forget to keep in touch and share your achievements with us! Reach out to office.journalism@torontomu.ca