TMU Alumna Sofia Vavaroutsos Wins Emerging Journalist Award for 2025

When the Radio Television Digital News Association (external link)  (RTDNA) announced the recipient of this year’s Emerging Journalist Award, Sofia Vavaroutsos (external link)  ‘22 had no idea she was listening to her own nomination.

Vavaroutsos was not expecting anything. Her boss at 680 News Radio, Amber Leblanc, had invited her to the national awards gala (external link)  on Nov. 1, framing it as a chance to network with other journalists. Before this moment, she had been shaking hands, meeting new people, listening to panellists, and even thinking about the Jays game, completely unaware of what would soon follow.

“They started with a description of what they thought a winning emerging journalist would be and then they said my name,” she said. “One of my coworkers had a camera that I didn’t know was on me to get my reaction…I think my jaw just dropped in the video.”

Before she got on stage, a video her coworkers put together congratulating Vavaroutsos on her accomplishment, showing the closeness of their newsroom dynamic, was shown.

“I was already teary watching that,” she said.

As she went to accept her award, she looked out at the room filled with journalists who had served as an inspiration growing up, notably Heather Hiscox and Donna Friesen. During her speech she thanked the RTDNA for recognizing people in the early stages of their careers.

“It's nice to be recognized. The hours of working in broadcast journalism are very difficult,” she said. “There's a lot of uncertainty in the industry, so to have an organization nationally that can recognize the work that you're doing, it means a lot.”

Vavaroutsos has been working at 680 News Radio as an anchor reporter for over three years. Starting her day at 3 a.m. and turning around stories quickly is no easy feat, but having her “supportive and uplifting” team beside her helps.

“We are all so close, so it is a lot of laughing, catching up; everyone's talking about how terribly they slept,” she said.

Before working at 680 News Radio, she graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Journalism program in 2022. There, she discovered her love for broadcast journalism and joined MetRadio. In her third year, she also started working for Global News 640 as a technical producer.

“That gave me a big leg up when it was time to look for a job. When it was time for my internship, I was able to very easily transition to the newsroom at that same station and do my internship,” she explained.

Since then, Vavaroutsos has gone on to graduate from Harvard University with a Master of Liberal Arts in International Relations and establish her career at 680 News Radio.

For students hoping to follow a similar path, she encourages pursuing every opportunity. 

“Try writing, try radio, try TV however you can,” she said. “When I started, I was working tech at a radio station. That was not even journalism, but it exposed me to a lot that I could then transition into that station’s newsroom.”