Students and Recent Grads Recognized at Industry Awards

For the work she produced as The Narwhal’s Indigenous Editorial Fellow in 2025 (external link) , recent alumna Savannah Ridley was recognized by both the CAJs and DPAs. Ridley was the silver medal winner of the JHR/CAJ Emerging Indigenous Journalist Award at the CAJs and received an honourable mention for the Emerging Excellence Award at the DPAs.

“It was pretty surreal because I was technically still a student when I got both of those nominations. It was kind of crazy, I didn't know about any of them because no one at The Narwhal told me that they were nominating my work,” said Ridley when asked about how it felt to be recognized.

Ridley credits her success at The Narwhal with the freedom she was given to pursue stories, even though in her original position as fellow she was not technically supposed to be reporting.

“Michelle Cyca was my boss and she's incredible. I pitched her a couple stories and she was like, ‘yeah, go for it.’ From there I got to work on a story about how the water issue in Indigenous communities (external link) , especially remote Indigenous communities, also has to do with staffing as well…and I got to work on another story that was all about data centers (external link) ,” said Ridley.

After graduating this spring, Ridley has started working at The Toronto Star, but she looks back at her time at The Narhwal with pride because of the relationships she built and the reporting she did, particularly about Indigenous communities.

“The Narwhal is really incredible in the way that they can weave in and out of incredibly important stories and stories that don't really get told all the time. Their Indigenous coverage is so on point. A big part of why I was a fellow there was to build their fact-checking capacity for Indigenous histories and Indigenous knowledge, because there are a lot of newsrooms where oral Indigenous knowledge wouldn't be considered something that could be factual or fact-checked,” said Ridley. 

2026 grad Konnor Killoran received the silver medal for Online Media along with journalist Stephen Maher for the articles “Separatism in Canada” (external link)  for Ricochet Media.

Maher was the writer of the pieces while Killoran was the photojournalist. The articles explored separatists sentiments in Alberta and to accompany the piece Killoran shot photographs at provincial landmarks like Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and notable events such as the Taber Pro Rodeo.

“As someone who was born and raised in northern Alberta, I feel like we do have a very strong culture through the Indigenous people within the area. And obviously a big thing is the oil industry and this ethos of the Wild West and I think there's nothing that really encapsulates that as much as a rodeo,” said Killoran.

Growing up in Alberta, Killoran honed his skills photographing the province’s natural landscapes.

Because he knew the region, Killoran was hired by Ricochet Media as both a photojournalist and a “fixer” for Maher, a job that included driving him around the sights.

“[Stephen Maher] has a lot of stories and a lot of experience and it was nice to be able to pick his brain on and see him in a working environment. Seeing someone who's done this for so many years, what he does to show up to these places he's never been before and find a story and find an angle and really get to the meat-and-potatoes of what you're looking for. It was a great learning experience for me, having done that before even coming out of journalism school at the time,” said Killoran.

Since working on the articles, Killoran has continued to work as a photojournalist and even reunited with Maher earlier this year in the Dominican Republic to work on an article for The Toronto Star. (external link) 

Going forward, Killoran hopes to continue working as a photojournalist and building his video production company

His advice to current journalism students is simple: “talk to people.”

“The number one skill I picked up through the course of university was forcing myself to get out there and talk to people, get to know them. Just talk to literally anyone. I talk to people while I'm waiting for the bus in the station. I'll talk to people on the street, you know, simple conversation like that. You meet so many people and you would be so surprised how many doors that'll open, how many experiences you'll get, and how many perspectives you can get just with a simple conversation,” said Killoran. 

As an editorial intern at The Green Line while completing her MJ degree, Aia Jaber worked alongside other members of the publication’s team on a much acclaimed article series “How to Navigate Renting around the Eglinton Crosstown,” (external link)  which received an honourable mention for Best Digital Editorial Package Small at this year's DPAs and was a finalist for the E. Cora Hind Award for Local Reporting Small Market at the NNAs.

Jaber said receiving such high profile recognition for her work was an out of this world feeling.

“You spend two years in the Master of Journalism learning all about actually doing journalism, and to see it reflected outside of the classroom setting and in a much more serious setting, I think is a wild feeling because people are actually reading your work,” said Jaber.

Jaber was heavily involved in the research process for the piece, a process that proved difficult given the constantly changing nature of the construction and rental market.

“It was a lot, like hundreds and hundreds of rentals that we were putting down or demovictions or evictions that we were taking note of,” said Jaber.

However, Jaber’s hard work paid off as she’s now an associate editor at The Green Line.

Jaber credits her success in part with her ability to keep an open mind to new professional and educational opportunities she had not previously thought of, and she feels it's important for current J-school students to do the same.

When Jaber began her degree she was set on becoming an editor, but soon also found a passion for cultural reporting.

“I find [cultural reporting] a lot of fun. I'm actually in Chinatown right now because [The Green Line is] doing a project on Chinatown as an ecosystem to fight gentrification. And it's been an awesome experience to learn history and just see all these ethnic groups or racialized peoples that have come generations ago found themselves in Canada or Toronto specifically,” said Jaber when speaking to us on the phone.
 

Recent MJ grad Larayb Abrar won a silver medal alongside Rosie Long Decter and Aysha White for her article “Club Connections” (external link)  in Maisonneuve.

The article was originally written in Abrar’s feature writing class at TMU. It explores the history and evolution of the South Asian underground nightlife scene.

“I was seeing a lot of South Asian influences in rave culture. So I kind of wanted to look into that a little more. I started out by talking to DJs and musicians, anyone creating more hybrid music, about what that's like…and then I think what really helped click the piece into shape was doing some historical research in terms of how the South Asian rave scenes developed in Toronto. I was finding all of these festivals and events that were happening in the '90s and I thought that was so cool,” Abrar.

At first Abrar was not sure if she was going to publish the story, but eventually made a successful pitch to Maisonneuve based on the work she had done in class. However, she never expected it would lead her to the DPAs.

“I didn't even really expect to be nominated to begin with for the DPAs. So that was kind of huge. And then, during the ceremony they announced [the silver medal win] and it was pretty overwhelming. I was very pleasantly surprised. I didn't think I'd win,” said Abrar.

Abrar also said getting the chance to attend the DPA ceremony was also a great opportunity to meet and network with fellow arts journalists who invited her to send them pitches.

Since graduation, Abrar has continued to pursue her dream of working as a feature writer.

“I just kind of follow my curiosity and my interests. I think if you're interested in art, you're probably already thinking about a lot of the other questions around it in terms of the different historical contexts or what this means for today's culture,” said Abrar.
 

In addition to the recent alumni who received recognition, incoming Master’s of Journalism student and University of Waterloo grad Andrew Yang was also recognized for his work at the CAJs.

Yang, along with Alicia Wang, was the silver medalist for the NNC/CAJ Student Journalism Award of Excellence for his work making the investigative documentary “Academic accessibility at uWaterloo: Is the University accommodating to invisible disabilities?” (external link)  published by Imprint Publications, the University of Waterloo’s student newspaper.

Yang, who has a background in photography and videography, worked as a producer on the project.

“I joined on to produce this documentary and help with the video-making process, interview students with invisible disabilities talking about their experiences, interacting with the university and packaging it in a way that was quite novel for our publication [Imprint] (external link) . It was a long process, I think it took about 6 months to produce,” said Yang.

Learning that his work as a journalist had been recognized by the CAJs was a special moment for Yang.

“It's quite surreal…to be recognized by the national body of journalists and amongst nominees and journalists that I really admire is quite humbling,” said Yang.

Yang said he is looking forward to pursuing his masters at TMU in the fall and continuing to hone the skills he developed while in his undergrad at Waterloo.

“Talking with people that did the [Master’s of Journalism], it really felt like TMU was the best place for me to learn about that journalistic process even more and it being in the heart of Canadian culture in Toronto, it felt like the perfect place to find amazing stories,” said Yang.