TORONTO - The Bachelor of Science in Nursing program (BSN) at Humber Polytechnic is created to help students handle the challenges of today’s healthcare system. From day one until their last clinical placement, students are put into situations that reflect the intense settings they will meet as nurses.

In cooperation with the University of New Brunswick, Humber provides a program that mixes learning in class, simulation exercises and practical work in hospitals. As a result of this approach, graduates are well-versed in anatomy, pharmacology and ethics and they can also provide good patient care and critical thinking.

Using simulation-based learning is one of the main features of the program. Clinical simulation labs at Humber are set up to look like hospital rooms, including beds, medical equipment and mannequins that can act out real symptoms and reactions. They are designed to respond as if a patient is experiencing cardiac arrest, breathing failure or problems after surgery.

Students can learn medical skills, practice communicating and decide on clinical actions on simulators without harming real patients. Simulation helps students collaborate, since they need to assess cases, decide on treatments and evaluate results together under the guidance of faculty.

During the four-year program, students spend more time learning how to do hands-on tasks. In the second year, students in the nursing program get practical experience in hospitals, long-term care centers and community health centers throughout the Greater Toronto Area. Having students work in these settings is important, as it allows them to deal with genuine patients, healthcare teams and challenges.

Students use what they have learned in class and practice being professional during clinical placements. Being assigned to medical-surgical, pediatric, mental health and maternity units enables them to understand the different fields and choose which one they are most interested in.

During the final year, students join a preceptorship — a 12-week full-time clinical placement with a registered nurse. The placement is created to mimic the real-world conditions a new graduate nurse would face. Students are assigned to full shifts, use the nurse’s schedule and are responsible for many of the duties of a nurse. The aim is to prepare students so well that they can easily start working after graduation.

In addition to clinical training, the Nursing program at Humber puts a lot of emphasis on helping students develop professionally. Taking courses on ethics, leadership, health equity and interprofessional collaboration, students learn about the healthcare system and the part they play in it. Being part of workshops and support groups helps students practice time management, resilience and communication skills which are important in challenging healthcare settings.

Technology is a major part of what the program offers. During their training, students practice using electronic health records and digital charting tools to get used to the technology hospitals use now. Faculty can review students’ actions in the simulation labs by playing back audio and video which helps them discuss important points and areas to improve.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing education in Canada had to adapt and Humber did so by offering flexible learning and new clinical schedules to follow safety rules. It showed me the value of adaptability which is now included in all parts of the curriculum.

After completing the BSN program at Humber, graduates typically meet the standards to take the national registered nurse exam and they are ready to apply the nursing standards set by the College of Nurses of Ontario. Many choose to work in hospitals, community health centres and specialized care units in both Ontario and other places.

The Nursing program at Humber Polytechnic focuses on practical learning, teamwork and preparing students for real-life situations in healthcare, giving them both the knowledge and the confidence to have a positive impact.

By Steven Edogun

The official registration period of fall 2025 courses in Humber College commences on July 21, 2025. Although the summer may be tempting to have fun and postpone enrolling, students who take early enrollment have a better chance of securing the classes they want, creating a flexible timetable, and not making unnecessary academic and financial burdens.

One of the greatest motivations to enroll early is to get a place in mandatory courses before they become full. Classes with a high demand, particularly core subjects and electives fill up very fast every semester. Waiting too long may result in being put on a wait list or having to take classes at inconvenient times, which may cause a scheduling conflict or delay graduation.

Early registration is also useful in ensuring that students manage their time. By registering early, you can choose the best class schedule to fit your life: working part-time, having family issues, or just trying to find balance. A proper schedule will help you to avoid stress and concentrate on learning and participation during the semester.

Early registration is not only about selecting classes, though. It is equally important to complete all the pre-registration requirements and this is not always done. This simply implies that you must have paid your tuition deposit and any account hold must be lifted before registration begins to most students. Failing to meet these requirements may delay your access to registration and you may not get the courses you require.

Humber College mandates that students pay their tuition deposit prior to the registration in order to be placed in the program and be allowed to select courses. Students who have not paid fees, outstanding documents, or academic holds will discover that their registration window is blocked. To prevent that, you should review MyHumber to see whether there are any alerts, pay any outstanding balances and make sure you are eligible before July 21.

Also, students who plan ahead of time are in a better position to meet with academic advisors and design their semester. Planning in advance will enable you to assess your academic progress, verify which courses are required and look at the electives that may be of interest to you personally and professionally. The later you start the registration process, the more difficult it will be to secure advising appointments, thus being ahead of the game puts you in an advantageous position.

Another advantage of early registration is the financial preparation. After you confirm your schedule, you will be able to estimate the cost of textbooks, apply to OSAP or scholarships, and budget your semester. This removes surprises and allows you more time to utilize campus support services including financial aid, tutoring, or counseling as necessary.

It is also proactive and will give you an advantage to participate in the life of Humber students. You have now planned out your schedule, so you can sign up to orientation events, visit campus resources, and meet fellow students before the semester begins.

By not planning, you are planning to fail as Benjamin Franklin rightly put it. No more scrambling, no more waitlists, no more stress, and you are ready to go, with your tuition deposit paid, your student record clean and your course selections ready to go.

The fall 2025 semester is approaching. The best way to start is to be an early registrant and be on top.

By Steven Edogun.

For a long time, people going to Humber’s North Campus have had to change buses several times and wait for a long time to reach class or their job. However, this situation is set to change in a major way. The Humber College Station of the Finch West Light Rail Transit is almost complete and will make a big difference to how the Humber area travels.

The Humber College Station is found at the southwest corner of Highway 27 and Humber College Boulevard as part of Line 6 Finch West LRT. When finished, the new underground station will be the western end of the new transit line, making it easy to connect to Toronto’s expanding network of trains and subways.

The station has been designed to be modern and to include everyone, with students and accessibility as its main priorities. The building will have elevators, accessible ramps, automatic doors, Wi-Fi access, public restrooms, and a room to park more than 40 bicycles. You will be able to travel between the bus stop and the main entrance of Humber’s North Campus, no matter how the weather is.

The project is not only focused on making things easier. It is focused on making sure everyone has a chance. The new station is expected to make it simpler and quicker for students from all over the Greater Toronto Area to come to Humber. It doesn’t matter if students are from Etobicoke or downtown Toronto; the LRT will give them fewer obstacles to studying and more time to focus on school, jobs, and campus activities.

A lot of students and staff are eager to experience the possible benefits. Time spent commuting that was once more than an hour can be reduced by half. Those who need to work and study while looking after their families will find the new transit service very helpful. Anyone concerned with protecting the environment can use the LRT instead of driving their car.

Although the building of Humber College Station was finished in early 2023, Metrolinx has kept working to install tracks, power systems, and check safety procedures from 2024 to 2025. Even though the exact opening date has not been decided, people expect it to happen soon. They will receive more information through campus bulletins, Humber Today, and of course, Humber Radio.

The station will have a live broadcast with student hosts, chats with campus leaders, and reactions from the first people using the new station. They want to show how special this moment is for the city and the Humber community.

At this moment, students can see the construction site and imagine what it will be like in the future. In time, buses might be replaced by LRT trains that move silently, and the long periods spent at traffic lights could end. The Humber College Station is not only a place to catch the train. It represents the advancement, openness, and hope for a better future at one of Canada’s most creative universities.

By Steven Edogun

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.