Throughout his 30-year journalism career, Stephen Maher has relocated several times and worked as a general reporter, restaurant critic, political reporter and magazine correspondant. While his career has continually evolved, one thing that’s held…
Lyndsie Bourgon has her writing sights set on poachers. Tree poachers. “Poaching wood around the world is incredibly lucrative,” Lyndsie says, then adds, “but people don’t always pay much attention to it because trees don’t have the same kind of…
When Amy Shira Teitel looks up at the night sky she sees not just the twinkling lights, she sees stories. “I can’t look at the moon,” Amy says, “and not think about the stories of the people who went there. Or the planets and not think about the…
Lisa Blackburn stands outside for three hours on a cold December morning as Halifax pauses to remember the horrific events of more than a century ago–the Halifax Explosion. She is here to commemorate. She is here to deliver remarks of remembrance…
Trina Roache lets go a good laugh when she says, “If I wanted to be famous, I got into the wrong line of work.” Trina, a member of the Glooscap First Nation, (Pesikitk’) works for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). She loves the…
Corbett Hancey is an investigative journalist. He has undergrad degrees from McGill and King’s and a Master’s degree from King’s College in London. He’s been awarded two prestigious fellowships. He’s been embedded with the Lebanese military. He’s…
Photo: Joan Baxter in November 2018 in southern Burkina Faso, with Roger Guibre (left), Thierry Bayala (centre), and Armand Bayala (right). Whether it’s reporting on a revolution in Burkina Faso, a failed coup d’état in Cameroon, or the prospect…
To understand how Meagan Campbell managed to land a full time job at a national newspaper just as she graduated, or how she had had a full time position at Maclean’s magazine for three years in between the third and fourth year of her journalism…
Paul Brothers is nothing if not strategic. He figures out what he wants, then he figures out how to get it. “I had a goal when I was a teenager that I would be on national television as a sports anchor before I turned thirty,” Paul says, a little…
For Robert Cribb, there was never any question. “The only kind of journalism I ever wanted to do was investigative,” he says. True to his word that is exactly what Rob is doing with the Toronto Star. “It’s the kind of journalism that looks at…
Life has been a series of epiphanies for Lezlie Lowe. There was the one she had while studying in the Contemporary Studies Program (CSP). “I found that I could study philosophy, but I didn’t have to think about or write about old stuff by white…
“I’m a little like Forrest Gump,” Marco Chown Oved says with a laugh. He has a point. Marco found himself, again and again, witness to major events. But not just a witness. He has made a career out of documenting them. When Marco graduated from…
It took a motorcycle accident in Mexico, six weeks of recovery and some soul searching, but Sofia Ortega finally figured it out. “I was having a very nice life making money, but I wasn’t happy.” she says. “I wasn’t doing what I was meant to do. I…
It was the day before Encaenia 2018 and Angel Moore had a job interview. She had applied to the Aboriginal People’s Television Network (APTN) for a summer internship. But after meeting with management at the network she was advised to apply for a…
“My goal is to provide a place for new voices,” Sherri Borden Colley says, “and to give people the chance to tell their stories.” Sherri is in a unique position to do just that. She is one of only a few black reporters in Nova Scotia. Over the two…
Laura Armstrong knew it would be tough finding a job in journalism after graduating. “I gave myself five years to find a career in this industry,” she says, knowing that the writing and communications skills she developed at King’s would help her…
Every Sunday afternoon Duncan McCue walks into a metaphorical corral. It’s actually a CBC Radio studio in Toronto. But Duncan knows he’s in for a ride hosting Cross Country Checkup, a national call-in show. “I’m on the air live for two hours with a…
“The truth is out there,” Calum Agnew says with a laugh quoting the line from the title sequence of the TV show The X Files. The truth is out there and he knows how to find it. Calum is currently studying law at the University of Toronto. But…
Sarah Fulford loved the notes her King’s professors gave her on the bi-weekly essays she had to write. She says, “I was quite bad at the beginning but I was much better by the end because I got such good feedback.” It was the feedback, as much as…
It was a tense time for Dorian Geiger. He was living in Doha, Qatar, working for Al Jazeera English. He had written most of a feature article for the website about three families in Hong Kong who had hidden the American whistleblower Edward…
Adrian Lee knows there is much more of the Canadian story to be told. And as the opinions editor at Maclean’s magazine he can help tell it through the voices not always heard. He says he wants the opinions section, which he edits and curates, to be…
So two economists walk into a bar - “and they walk out sommeliers,” laughs Mark DeWolf. It’s not exactly the way it happened for Mark, but it is pretty close. Mark graduated from King’s he says with “the ability to take a different approach and a…
When Michael Dick was growing up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, he hadn’t heard the Latin phrase - A posse ad esse - From a possibility to an actuality. It’s the town motto for Fort William, one of the two cities that joined to become Thunder Bay. It…
In a verse penned some time ago, Shauntay Grant writes, ”My mother says when I was young I’d follow her, room-to-room, asking the same question: ’Why’? I think that ever since I’ve been asking. I hope I never find the answers. It’s the questions…
Adam Scotti can get as close to history in the making as his wide angle lens will let him. And the pictures he takes tell the story of a new Canadian Prime Minister. Adam is Justin Trudeau’s official photographer. His road to the ringside seat…
When Davis Carr wants to do something new, chances are it will get done. “That’s how it was at King’s,” she says. “You just go for it.” So one evening she was in a pub in downtown Ottawa. “A friend turned to me and said, ‘Hey you know how to edit…
When a humanitarian disaster happens, the people affected need more than just the physical necessities. They need information. Where can they find accommodation? How do they register with the police? When is it safe to return home? That’s where…
Not much rattles Starr Cunningham. She had made a career in front of the cameras of ATV and CTV as a reporter and then a host. She’d seen just about everything that could go wrong, go wrong. She was a pro at live TV, rolling with the punches. So…
A gunman was on the loose. Three RCMP officers were dead, two seriously wounded. Parts of Moncton were in lockdown. The hunt for Justin Bourque was in full swing. It was June 5, 2014. Jonna Brewer, as host of CBC Radio’s Information Morning in…
Leah Collins Lipsett can plunk out a tune on a ukulele, but she is more at home at a piano. She began playing at the age of six and talks proudly of her final recital to earn her Bachelor of Music degree from King’s and Dalhousie. She nailed it,…
Karen McColl was anxious. She had to find the right gear, contact the right people and she had to find a travelling companion. She had a little more than a month to do it all. “But,” she says, “Once I dipped my paddle in the water it was all good.”…
“My motto is ‘just say yes’,” says Samuelle – Sam – Mednick. It helps to explain why her journey from the King’s quad to Barcelona, where she now lives and works, has taken her to Fiji, Vancouver, Argentina, Lebanon, Panama, Uganda, and Ghana along…
The assignment was to do a food review for the magazine she was editing called Time Out Doha. The venue, the new Gordon Ramsay restaurant at the St. Regis in Doha, capitol city of Qatar. The food was sublime, but a bit pricey. “They bring the bill…
For more than three months, Juliet Williams rifled through box after box, poring over paper files. She was researching a story on the California government’s failure to adequately track teachers accused of sexual misconduct. The state refused to…
“My final magazine article for Stephen Kimber’s class required more than one re-write,” Jocelyn Corkum recalls. “On my final draft he wrote, “B” ..good luck at ATV”!” After juggling her final journalism semester around a 40-hour work week as ATV’s…
In her final year at King’s, Angela Chang didn’t know whether she would qualify for her degree by the time semester ended. She was the first student to attempt a combined degree with Saint Mary’s University, and the reciprocal agreement was not yet…
When Emma Teitel compared the Toronto rapper and recording artist Drake to Isabel Archer, the protagonist in Henry James’ novel Portrait of a Lady, she was channeling her time at King’s. Emma made that comparison in Maclean’s magazine. And it…
Since leaving the University of King’s College, Alexander Desiré-Tesar has been fortunate enough to work with both Lapham’s Quarterly and The Walrus, exploring history and contemporary ideas through journalism. He’s also travelled widely,…
“For me,” says Lindsay Cameron Wilson “a recipe is never just a recipe. It’s a neighbourhood. It’s a family. It’s a story.” And she tells those stories on her cooking show Love Food (Clerisy Entertainment) on Eastlink TV, on her podcast - The Food…
Heather Blom’s contemporary studies at King’s revealed a natural talent for bridging disciplines and communities.“Language and art, scientific language and artistic language - in the end, it boils down to communication and how different methods of…
For someone with dreams of being a reporter, Chad Lucas’ working life began exactly where a graduate would want to end up. Chad’s four-year journalism degree and combined English honours led him straight into a sportswriter job with the Chronicle…
This is the same Stephanie Nolen who has won seven National Newspaper Awards, five Amnesty International Media Awards, and numerous other accolades. Her book, 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa, was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award.…
Liam Hyland hand-delivered his application to former King’s journalism director Kim Kierans, unsure if his high school marks would be good enough. “On paper it may not look great, but if you give me a chance, I’ll show you that I can do it,” Hyland…
When Pete Pachal started the one-year bachelor of journalism degree program at King’s, he was immediately struck by the school’s sense of support and community. “Everybody who was there wanted to be there. When you have people who really want to…
It was a Sunday night in June 2013. Ruth Spencer was in her tiny New York apartment with a few colleagues from The Guardian US where she was Community Editor. Edward Snowden, the man who had leaked thousands of documents from the American National…
It could be a mass shooting like the one in Las Vegas in the fall of 2017. Or a van plowing into pedestrians along a Toronto street in the spring of 2018. If it is a big story Emanuella Grinberg will be at her desk at CNN in Atlanta writing. She’s…
Trevor Adams is happy to talk weather. “It’s sunny right now,” he says from his Florida home, “but we have a broad low moving north of us that’s been giving us rain for the last few days.” Trevor has been talking weather professionally, as a ‘TV…
Growing up in Ottawa the son of a Toronto Star reporter, David’s early role models for an international reporting career included his friends’ parents who were diplomats and foreign correspondents like the CBC’s Matthew Halton and Joe Schlesinger.…