The first day I walked into The Globe and Mail headquarters on King St. I was nervous. I wore a black suit that was probably too big for me and a crisp white shirt – probably a little overdressed for the newsroom.
When I first received the call confirming that I had been accepted for the fellowship I was overjoyed. The six months I spent gave me an essential understanding of the day-to-day workings of a newsroom and allowed me to work alongside some of the most talented journalists,
producers, writers, editors and photographers.
In September, I watched the journalists and editors in the newsroom rush as news broke that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was credible information tying India to the killing of Sikh activist and Canadian citizen, Hardeep Sing Nijjar, in June. Israel and Palestine,
Ukraine and Russia and Canada’s own ongoing cost-of-living crisis, I got a front row seat as the newsroom reported on the biggest stories affecting the world and the country. It quickly became obvious why The Globe is home to some of the most skilled journalists in the
country. I also did my own reporting. From reporting on a $4.5-million fraud case that involved federal COVID aid programs to an initiative that trains barbers as mental-health first responders for
Black communities, I got to flex my skills as I learned to report on quick news stories, write short features and interview up-and-coming stars for The Globe and Mail’s audience.
If you asked me to measure my accomplishments while at the Globe in numbers, I’d tell you I had 28 bylines, spent a day on the story leaderboard with the highest-read story for a day and wrote stories in five different categories: business, technology, the arts, health and
lifestyle. But what I’m proudest of is being able to tell stories that affect people that look like me, to report on mental-health initiatives in the country and the time I got to see a photo of my grandparents spread across the front page of the paper’s Saturday Pursuits section.
All the stories I produced throughout the fellowship can be found on my portfolio website.
