Anushka Yadav graduated from Humber's journalism postgrad program in 2020, before it was cancelled, noting that much of her career is thanks to Humber and the professors.

“Because I was in the program that I was in, I loved every part of journalism. I was like, oh, I'm down for whatever that comes next,” Yadav said.

“It was Lara King who was also handling this one other program where you work on a national investigative story with the IIJ, with other students across the country. So for that, I think Rob and Terra recommended my name and that's how I got that, got to travel, got to write, got to investigate and we even got nominated for a national award for that,” she said.

“I don't think I would have like been able to figure out these things on my own. It was because of the professors at Humber that I was able to do it,” Yadav said.

Back in India before she moved to Canada, she was an education reporter, mainly took photos, wrote and interviewed sources for articles but through Humber’s postgrad program, she fell in love with the audio and TV aspects of journalism.

“When I was looking at programs, I selected Humber’s because the program stood out to me and then once I came here and I was going for assignments and meeting people in the field, I realized that so many good journalists out there are Humber grads,” Yadav said.

She enjoyed the program, staying engaged and on top of everything. Opportunities such as IIJ, Global News and CBC came through networking, staying in touch with professors and putting herself out there, but it was up to her to take advantage and apply.

Now working as an environmental journalist at The Pointer, Yadav highly recommends Humber's journalism program to aspiring students, highlighting its value and the rewarding opportunities it offers.

Joshua Cushnie, Humber Polytechnic Radio Broadcasting 2024 graduate, known by professors as the guy to sit in the front of the class, take notes by hand and chat with every professor afterwards for 10-45 minutes, now is the afternoon drive host at 99.5 Moose FM in Bracebridge.

“If you put in the work, like in school or when you're still like still at the beginning of your career, it's going to pay off later,” Cushnie said.

“The reason I chose Humber although I was also considering Algonquin, is that Humber is the biggest market for radio. If you want to be able to go to campus and then also be able to work at fantastic stations and talk to great, really smart people, people who have been in it for long enough to get to this point, you're going to Humber,” he said.

“Humber is probably the best school for networking and the media industry is all networking, so show up and leverage those networks,” Cushnie said.

He said he still has Humber professors that he calls and plans on having meetings with in the future as the college can help students find great people and professors with helpful industry insights.

Cushnie obtained his first radio job shortly after his internship at Indie88 as they kept him on and later when the ownership changeover happened, they had him switched to the street team where he was working events.

“My boss Ashley was like, ‘Hey, you should get some demos out. You probably could be good enough to be an announcer.’ I didn't believe her, but I trusted her. Moose FM was looking for someone to do announcing and promotions, and so I think the fact that I had major market promotions experience and went to school for radio landed me the gig, even though I hadn't done announcing stuff,” he said.

Aaron D’Andrea graduated from Humber Polytechnic’s Journalism Advanced Diploma program in 2016 and described that program as the encouragement he needed to really start getting experience and not just wait for an internship.

“During my schooling and my second year I began freelancing for my local paper. A couple of jobs every few months helped me start to build up some reporting experience. The school newspaper helped with that too and then my internship at TSN,” D’Andrea said.

“When it was coming towards the end of my graduation, I didn’t just have the internship there, I also had some stuff that I did outside of school. The internship kind of really solidified some of the things that I was learning at the time through school such as tight deadlines, fast-paced work environment, attention to detail. All those skills were really tested at the internship,” he said.

D’Andrea stumbled upon the journalism program at Humber because of his mom’s advice to get involved in broadcasting because he enjoyed talking about sports.

Although he came to the realization that he liked sports recreationally, he still did quite a bit with journalism and is now a supervising online journalist at Global News.

“What they teach you in journalism school, Humber, in particular, those skill sets are in demand whether you end up in journalism or not because companies, organizations, non-profits, everybody values a strong communicator, somebody who can ingest information and then deliver that message in clear and plain language,” D’Andrea said.

“They value people with communication skills, with writing, information gathering, all those skills you’re taught at Humber,” he said. “If you’re going through that program and you want to be a journalist, you apply yourself and you apply for those jobs.

“But if you don’t get there, just know that those three years or four years that you put in there, they have value because those skills can be used across a vast number of industries and those skills are in demand,” D’Andrea said.

Chantilly Post graduated from Humber Polytechnic’s Journalism Advanced Diploma program in 2015, interning as an online news writer for Entertainment Tonight, what she thought would be her dream job and is now an international marketing manager for Warner Music Group.

“I kind of got my dream job and I didn’t like it. It was necessary. I’m happy I went through that so young and early in my career, instead of getting it later and then realizing this isn’t what I want,” Post said.

“I graduated from Humber and I worked at Entertainment Tonight Canada and then I left Entertainment Tonight but even while I was still there, I actually ended up starting my own blog because I knew I still wanted to do journalism,” she said.

Post later started a blog when she realized her beat was music and wanted to have more freedom involving what artists she chose to speak to, desiring to be on their teams, help tell their story and what she wanted to speak on, in addition to her freelance work as a music journalist.

“I also remember my year of studying. It was the very first time that they let us report a story with our phones, which is crazy. It was like the first year where the teacher was like, ‘Things are changing. I want you guys to go downtown and tell me a story using your phone because now journalists are now doing that,’ ” Post said.

“So I say that communication and journalism is storytelling and at the end of the day, every single thing that we get sold is like a narrative and storytelling,” she said.

“When we go to buy a product, there’s a narrative and a story behind how that product is the best or why it’s the best or why it’s beating out other brands. So I think that in this changing industry, you can’t deny that communication is always going to be important,” Post said.

Ashley Greco graduated from Humber Polytechnic’s Radio Broadcasting program in 2004 and described this program and the people in it to have a huge influence on her career.

Jerry Chomyn, who was the Program Head of Media Studies for the University of Guelph Humber at the time, had convinced her to major in announcing instead of production.

“I’ve decided production is what I want to do. And he says I can’t let you do that. He’s like I feel like you are going to be very successful as an announcer and I just can’t let you not take that path,” Greco said.

“I owe everything to Jerry for the career that I’ve had because I just feel like it would have gone in a completely different direction. He heard something in me that I didn’t hear in myself at the time,” she said.

Greco described her decision to choose Humber to study at as an easy decision given how many professionals were on the faculty, making it a great way to network and gain insights in the industry.

“I lacked a lot of confidence going into the program because I wasn’t sure if it was something that I wanted to do. But it wasn’t until the second year, when we started to work in the radio station itself, that I really started to gain the confidence,” she said.

“The biggest thing for me is the amount of confidence I had leaving the program based on when I first walked through the door, unsure if this was even something I wanted to do. I was lost my first year and then I was completely driven and knew that I was in the right program,” Greco said.

At the end of her program, she interned at Kiss 92.5 and was best-known as the singing phone op as she’d sing all of the requests that would come in the request line.

Greco now works as a morning show host for Bell Media and advises students to take advantage of all of the hands-on opportunities there are so many at Humber that allow you to immerse yourself in every aspect of radio.

Article Written By: Julia Vellucci

James MacPhee graduated from Humber Polytechnic's Radio Broadcasting program in 1992, now best-known as an award winning voice actor, voice talent and voiceover artist.

Many of Humber's programs offer internship opportunities including the Radio Broadcasting program which helped MacPhee get started in his career outside of Humber.

"I landed my first radio job at the same station I interned at (CFCO, Chatham) about six months after the internship," MacPhee said.

Radio Humber is now on Bluesky, bringing to you updates on their latest artists, music and even campus news. Radio Humber has celebrated over 50 years of radio at Humber Polytechnic, has some well-known alumni on radio stations across Canada and provides many students with live radio broadcasting experience.