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Celebrating excellence in poetry and fantasy writing at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies.

Marina Nemat Award Finalists Announced

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This year’s award highlights outstanding poetry and fantasy writing.

Each year, the Marina Nemat Award honours the most promising learners to complete the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies Creative Writing certificate. Named for Marina Nemat, a graduate whose final project became the bestselling memoir, Prisoner of Tehran, the award exists thanks in part to her generous support of her fellow writers. It recognizes the most outstanding final projects in the program as selected by an esteemed panel of Canadian publishing industry professionals. Up to two $1000 awards are given annually. 

Since its inception, the award has celebrated excellence across genres. This year, as we sunset the Marina Nemat award, we will be highlighting poetry and fantasy writing, showcasing the vibrant range of voices in our program. 

This year’s finalists include:

Marina Nemat Award for Poetry

Bradley Alvarez

Bradley Alvarez is a communications professional, poet, and writer living in Richmond, British Columbia. He holds a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Simon Fraser University (SFU) as well as a post-baccalaureate diploma in Communications (SFU). In 2022, Bradley won first prize in the University of Toronto’s Janice Colbert poetry award.  He loves long road trips, trudging up mountains, and spending time with his family.

Storylines: Alvarez’ final project, Storylines, is a collection of poems rooted in the experiences that shape us. They are an exploration of family, identity and the landscapes that rise in our memories. 

Kathe Gray

Kathe Gray is a doctoral candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University in Toronto. She holds a certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies, where she was the 2021 recipient of the Penguin Random House of Canada Student Fiction award. Her creative writing has appeared in Carousel, Great Lakes Review, Room, and Versal, and on stage at the Toronto Fringe Festival. She and her family live on the treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit in Guelph, Ontario.

Gray’s final project, Car Radio At Night Nearly Home tunes into the quiet frequencies of everyday life—absence, memory, and tenderness—flickering between voices, moods, and landscapes. This collection hums with grit, longing, and the uncanny shimmer of the ordinary.

Kerri Huffman

Kerri Huffman is a Toronto-based poet, whose work has appeared in Acta Victoriana, Contemporary Verse 2, Taddle Creek Magazine, The Antigonish Review and The Fiddlehead among others. She has received the Hart House Review Poetry Prize and was twice shortlisted for the Janice Colbert Poetry Award. Juniper, her first collection of poetry, is being published in Spring 2025 by Frontenac House.

Juniper: Through diary-like reflections, Juniper charts the final months of a transformational, intimate and yet corrosive relationship. A meditation on memory, addiction and longing, the haunting poems in Juniper detail the seemingly insignificant moments between friends that evoke the true meaning of their entanglement.

Jane Macdonald

Jane Macdonald (she/her) lives on the north shore of Lake Ontario where she is currently at work on an oral history of its Commercial Fishery. A White settler, Jane completed her Certificate in Creative Writing with the School of Continuing Studies at University of Toronto, and is a recipient of the Janice Colbert Poetry Award.

Thorn Hedge: Macdonald lives and writes in a rural community on the shores of Lake Ontario, home to the Haudenosaunee, Anishinabek, Wendat, and United Empire Loyalists. And so the spine of her collection, titled Thorn Hedge, runs through snow and water and resounds with grief in poems that linger on the animate and built worlds of small town Ontario, on the hands and lives that produced them and in the remembered understandings of childhood on the Prairies.

Diane Massam

Diane Massam writes about aging, anxiety, and the entanglement of nature and mind. With recent/upcoming publications in The New Quarterly, Queens Quarterly, Grain, and Prairie Fire, she won the Federation of BC Writers poetry contest (2021) and the Arc Award of Awesomeness (September 2024). She is a professor emeritus of linguistics at the University of Toronto, where in 2023 she completed a certificate in creative writing at the School of Continuing Studies. With roots in BC, Ontario, and Québec, she now lives in her hometown, Victoria. (IG: @massampoetry)

Ground Cover: Ground Cover explores existential anxiety and the entanglement of nature and mind, through prisms of aging and memory. Firmly rooted in Canadian landscapes, the poems speak of the longing for continuity of ourselves, humanity, and the natural world, in the face of the complexity and strangeness of life.

Jury:

Michael Holmes, Executive Editor, ECW Press

Elizabeth Philips, Editorial Director, Thistledown Press

Vanessa Stauffer, Managing Editor, Biblioasis
 

Marina Nemat Award for Fantasy

Maude Abouche

Maude Abouche, writing as Madi Haab, is a queer and neurodivergent writer of Moroccan descent from Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. She has lived and studied in Japan, and draws inspiration from her mixed cultural heritage and identities to explore the liminal and interstitial. Her work has received honourable mentions from the 2023 Penguin Random House Student Award for Fiction and 2024 Janice Colbert Poetry Award, and has appeared in Augur Magazine, Haven Speculative, and more. She is currently seeking representation for her first novel, WHERE SPIDER LILIES BLOOM, a historical fantasy with a strong romantic arc set in feudal Japan.

Where Spider Lilies Bloom: After a nasty breakup leaves her stranded in the Japanese countryside, Montrealer-turned-Tokyoite Lily has an ill-advised hookup with a mysterious stranger named Tadao in an abandoned temple. Unable to put him out of her mind, she returns to the temple to look for him, but slips into a liminal realm during her search and ends up in feudal Japan. There she crosses his path again, defying time itself. Faced with betrayal, revenge, and the very real ghosts of the samurai family they’re both bound to protect, Lily and Tadao try to make sense of their fateful bond, while their choices not only affect their present, but ripple across centuries.

Marica Cassis

Marica Cassis is a historical archaeologist who teaches ancient and medieval history at the University of Calgary and who digs up medieval peasants in rural Türkiye. She has been in love with history and books since she discovered time travel novels when she was a child. She lives in Calgary with her husband, son, three cats, and Oscar the dog.

Enki’s Amulet: Nick, a 13-year old from Toronto, is sent to spend the summer with his grandmother in Newfoundland where he uncovers a mysterious amulet which moves him back through time and space to ancient Mesopotamia. There he encounters more than he bargained for: evil demons (some with wings and claws), a dark plot to control time, and a buried family secret. Can he and his new friend Bel-Inaan, a smart-mouthed scribal student, depend on themselves and each other to save the world? As long as there is baklava and cheese pies, anything is possible.
 

Sharon Selby

Sharon Dawn Selby teaches English Literature and Professional Communications at Fanshawe College (London, ON), which means she gets to roam the realms of other people's stories when she isn't writing her own. She has published several academic book reviews and a monograph, Memory and Identity in Canadian Fiction. Her short story, “Mine Own,” appeared in Mythaxis in December 2020.

Skye: It's Skye’s seventeenth birthday. Her parents are missing, and everyone seems to be in a terrible hurry to declare her an orphan. When a mysterious letter arrives, filled with hints of a family history that she knows nothing about, all the carefully constructed lies that held her life together begin to fall apart. With the help of her two best friends, Skye is determined to find the truth about what happened to her parents. Their quest will take them beyond this world to a place where stories shape reality and the creatures of nightmares are lying in wait.

Jury:

Lara Hinchberger, Executive Editor, Penguin Canada

M.C. Joudrey, writer and Publisher, At Bay Press

A.G.A. Wilmot, writer and editor
 

SCS Award Winner Pays It Forward with New Creative Writing Award

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The Catherine B. Fogarty Creative Non-Fiction Writing Award Supports SCS Learners Writing Outstanding Nonfiction.

In March of 2021, SCS learner Catherine Fogarty won the School of Continuing Studies (SCS) Marina Nemat Award for Creative Writing for her outstanding final project. Now, the author plans to offer current SCS learners similar encouragement, inspiration, and support with the creation of a new award for creative non-fiction writers. 

“I am thrilled to establish the Catherine B. Fogarty Creative Non-Fiction Writing Award at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies to recognize and support emerging literary talent within our diverse community. This award will celebrate excellence in creative non-fiction, allowing students to showcase their work and gain recognition for their achievements. When told well, true stories help us make sense of the world. They foster a deeper emotional connection to historical events, personal experiences and social issues. Creative non-fiction can push boundaries, question assumptions and help to spark meaningful conversations,” Catherine explains. 

“With this award, I hope to inspire the next generation of writers who will preserve voices and stories that might otherwise be overlooked or forgotten. We must continue to honour our personal and collective histories.” 

SCS Creative Writing Program Director Lee Gowan believes the award will do just that. “I’m so pleased that Catherine’s generosity has made it possible for SCS to honour a Non-fiction author each year,” he says. 

Each year, the $2000 award will be presented to the SCS creative writing learner with the top creative nonfiction final project manuscript as determined by a jury of publishing industry experts. 

U of T SCS and Wealthsimple Foundation Launch Introduction to Personal Finance Course for Black, Indigenous and Racialized Youth

Canadian dollar bills

“This initiative represents the course I wish I had during my university years.” – Course co-creator Martina Simmonds.

The University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies has launched its first personal finance course designed specifically for Black, Indigenous and racialized youth. 

Launching this week, the program, developed in collaboration with Wealthsimple Foundation, aims to equip young adults with essential financial literacy skills they may not have had the opportunity to learn in high school or other educational endeavours. 

“Youth may be in the early stages of their professional or educational pathways, and/or living independently, and financial responsibility or a budget mindset may not have been part of their lived experiences. This course helps propel them forward,” SCS Assistant Dean, Lifelong Learning and Innovation Juan Mavo-Navarro explains.

The program addresses this gap by providing practical knowledge and skills that will prepare youth for today’s real-world financial responsibilities and serve them well into their future. “When they start making money and having expenses like commuting or buying books for school, or paying rent, that’s when reality sets in,” Mavo-Navarro noted. 

"For those involved in a financially literate environment early on, the learning begins by experience. However, without guidance, they may be prone to costly mistakes."

Acknowledging this importance of early financial education, Wealthsimple Foundation has generously sponsored the program, making it free to attend for qualifying learners.  

Course co-creator Martina Simmonds says it was particularly important to her to gear the program towards young people from equity-deserving groups. 

“I prioritized developing a resource specifically tailored for Black, Indigenous, and racialized youth, aiming to address their financial literacy needs directly,” she explains. 

“Integrating culturally focused case studies, peer and celebrity confessions, and practical skills like completing income tax forms, were crucial steps in bridging this gap. This initiative represents the course I wish I had during my university years, and I am thrilled to partner with the Wealthsimple Foundation and SCS to make this valuable resource available.”

The online course is six weeks long and aims to equip learners with the key skills required for personal banking, budgeting, debt management, and smart personal financial planning. 

SCS Dean Catherine Chandler-Crichlow says she looks forward to seeing what participants in the program will do with the knowledge they gain through the program, adding:

“We’re so happy to be a part of helping these bright and determined young people gain access to a set of skills and knowledge essential to allowing them to take control of their financial futures.”

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Interested in taking this course? 

Subscribe to receive email updates about future offerings of the Wealthsimple Introduction to Personal Finance Course for Black, Indigenous and Racialized Youth.

 
 

SCS Learner Establishes the Pal Saqi Award for Creative Fiction Writing in Honour of his Father

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“There is no doubt in my mind that the courses I completed through the School of Continuing Studies were essential in building the skills and discipline I required to get my debut novel published” – Rajinderpal S. Pal

The University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies (SCS) is pleased to announce a new award for creative writing established by SCS learner and author Rajinderpal S. Pal. 

Named for Pal’s father, the Pal Saqi Award for Creative Fiction Writing will provide $2,000 annually to a Creative Writing Certificate learner with the most outstanding Final Project. The award’s recipients will be selected by a panel of Canadian publishing industry professionals.

For Pal, an award-winning writer and performer who recently launched his debut novel, the award is both an opportunity to give back to the program that nurtured his own writing, and a way to honour the memory and legacy of his father. 

“2025 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of my father, Bishambar Singh Saqi, a renowned Punjabi poet. I only knew him for a short time but his influence—his love of learning, of poetry, and his generosity—still guides me and my siblings to this day—two of my siblings are also published authors,” he explains. 

“The opportunity to support the Final Project award seemed to be a perfect venue through which I could honour the memory of my father, my siblings who are my biggest champions, and show gratitude for a program that helped me immensely.”

Pal, who received the Penguin Random House Student Award for Fiction while completing creative writing courses at SCS, hopes that in addition to the financial support, the award will give emerging writers the boost and, the much needed, early recognition to continue pursuing their passion. 

“There is no doubt in my mind that the courses I completed through the School of Continuing Studies were essential in building the skills and discipline I required to get my debut novel published,” he says. 

SCS Creative Writing program director Lee Gowan agrees that the award will make a difference in the lives and careers of SCS creative writing learners. “Besides giving emerging writers much needed validation,” he says, “this award will spotlight both the winning and shortlisted final projects to publishers and agents.”

The first shortlist of authors for the Pal Saqi Award for Creative Fiction Writing will be announced in Spring 2025 and the finalist will be celebrated at the annual SCS Creative Writing Awards Reception in Fall 2025. 

To learn more about Pal Saqi and the award, or to make your own contribution to support emerging writers, please visit the award’s donation page.  

Saqi Pal

Saqi Pal

Rajinderpal Pal

Rajinderpal S. Pal


 

10 Resolutions SCS Can Help You Keep in 2025

Person in the mountains

Stay on track to meet your goals with expert motivation and guidance from SCS.

About 80% of people who make New Year’s Resolutions give up on them by mid-February, but that doesn’t need to be the case for you! Here are 10 resolutions SCS can help you keep in 2025. 
 

  1. Move Your Career Forward – Prepare for and decide on the next bold step in your career with the help of one-on-one coaching, workshops, and free career-focused webinars offered through our Blueprint Career Services.
  2. Learn a Language – Our language courses and certificates can help you learn or improve your skills in a wide variety of languages, while our popular English Language Program can help you reach your academic, professional, or personal English Language goals.
  3. Improve Your Cognitive Health - Learning new information and skills can help your brain to keep growing and maintain neuroplasticity, which can help with memory, learning, depression, and can even aid in recovery from strokes or traumatic brain injuries.
  4. Build a More Fulfilling Social Life – Growing your social circle as an adult can be challenging! We love seeing our learners connect with people who share a common interest with them and build new lifelong friendships.
  5. Improve Your Project Management Abilities – Project management continues to be an in-demand skill set across sectors. Make 2025 the year you develop this skill set for yourself, or prepare to formalize the skills you already have with a Project Management Institute certification.
  6. Start Your Memoirs – You’ve got stories to tell. Find your writing community and let our expert creative writing instructors guide you in telling those stories in a clear and compelling way. Not quite ready for memoirs? Check out our wide variety of other writing genres to explore.
  7. Update Your Marketing Skills – With the explosion of AI technology over the past few years, there has never been a better time to ensure your marketing skills and toolkit are current and competitive. Our expert marketing and communications instructors are passionate about doing just that and about passing on their up-to-date knowledge to help you future-proof your marketing career.
  8. Become An Effective Leader – Whether you already lead a team or you aspire to take on a leadership role within your organization this year, our leadership program can help you develop the skills and mindset of a great leader.
  9. Earn A Professional Certification or Designation – You know what your skills and abilities are. Now let potential employers know by earning an in-demand designation to add to your resumé. 
    Whether you are working towards earning a professional designation or certification, or need to maintain your credential with continuing education requirements, we have partner-recognized courses and certificates to help you succeed on your journey forward.
  10. Embrace AI - If your goal this year is to develop your understanding of AI, our Artificial Intelligence certificate is here to help you explore all modern branches of AI, from deep learning using neural nets to reinforcement learning as well as to understand Canada’s cutting-edge AI marketplace – and where you fit best in 2025.

 

U of T and Porsche Canada Celebrate 500th EV Micro-Credential Milestone

People in the audience

“The Porsche Cars Canada partnership is just a fantastic example of where SCS, by leveraging our expertise and working with different groups within U of T, taps into the strength of the university.” – SCS Dean Catherine Chandler-Crichlow

The University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies (SCS) has been working with U of T faculties and divisions to empower leading organizations to upskill their workforce through customized training that aligns with evolving industry demands. 

One of these organizations, Porsche Cars Canada, Ltd., recently celebrated a significant milestone in their commitment to providing staff of their headquarters as well as Porsche Centre staff across the country with specialized knowledge on electric vehicle (EV) technology and innovation: the completion of the 500th Porsche Electro-Mobility Certification micro-credential. 

In response to the accelerating shift towards EVs, in 2021 Porsche Cars Canada leadership set out to enhance employee training with a forward-looking approach. They partnered with SCS and the University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering (FASE) to create a custom micro-credential designed to give Porsche Centre staff an in-depth understanding of this bourgeoning technology.

“Creating this micro-credential is really a hallmark of our culture,” explains Derek Tadros, Director of Retail Development at Porsche Cars Canada. 

“Porsche has always strived to be at the forefront of innovation. So I think from the onset, when we looked at the situation and the start of the electrification of our brand, we realized we had knowledge gaps. And we knew we needed a partner to help support us in ensuring we can provide the right skills and knowledge.”

The University of Toronto (UofT) School of Continuing Studies’ Organizational and Corporate Training department and U of T Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) professor Olivier Trescases were the ideal collaborators to provide that support. 

Trescases, who is both a professor in electrical and computer engineering and the director of the U of T Electric Vehicle Research Centre, agrees. “It's been an amazing experience working with Porsche and the School of Continuing Studies. It's been really a team exercise to craft this program according to their needs,” he explains. 

“I think this kind of micro-credential is essential to being competitive in the space of electric vehicles because the workforce really wasn't trained in that area and needs to make a shift. We're seeing major investments in Ontario, and I think this aligns very well with retraining, and retooling in particular.”

The micro-course was originally designed to establish competency in foundational electrical concepts and core EV technologies, as well as more forward-looking innovations such as vehicle-to-grid and wireless charging. Thanks to Trescases’ expertise, the course content has continued to evolve alongside advancements in EV technology.

Trescases says he sees this kind of just-in-time, customized education as increasingly valuable. “Companies don't necessarily have the time for their employees to spend two or four years in an advanced degree, but they want something very targeted that's up to date and that's from a trusted source,” he elaborates. 

“And I think this program really satisfied that requirement and I think we will see more and more of it going forward.”

Now, with electric vehicles selling in higher numbers than ever before Porsche has passed the milestone of 500 micro-credentials earned by Canadian Porsche Centre staff, and they are not stopping there. The ninth cohort of the program began in the fall, and participants say the micro-course leaves them feeling confident in their ability to address any concerns or questions their clients might have. 

“The engineering element brought into this course, which is so much different than what we’re typically used to seeing in the showroom, definitely made my knowledge of all things electric vehicles and batteries, so much broader in terms of my comfort level being able to explain the technology a lot more thoroughly than I did before taking the course,” says New Car Sales Manager at Porsche Centre Oakville, Domenica Giordiano. 

The program’s success is also due to Porsche Cars Canada’s decision to include both front-line staff and senior leadership. Julianna Morris, Senior Manager of Porsche People Excellence in Training believes this inclusivity was crucial, as it demonstrated to staff that members of leadership were willing to ‘walk the talk” when it came to continuing education and upskilling. 

“Having such positive feedback from the Porsche Centre teams has made me realize that continuing education and ensuring that people are skilled and have the knowledge as we progress in electromobility is essential to our success and to their success,” she says. 

“I believe that organizations must actively partner with universities to ensure the workforce of tomorrow is equipped with the skills and knowledge needed for long-term success.”

SCS Dean Catherine Chandler-Crichlow says the School of Continuing Studies’ Organizational and Corporate Training department is prepared to facilitate these kinds of academic-industry partnerships, not just in the automotive field, but across industries. By working with faculties and professors who are doing leading-edge research at the university, SCS can help bring current, highly-sought new skills to the workplace. 

“I think the Porsche Canada partnership is just a fantastic example of where the school, by leveraging our expertise and working with different groups within the university, taps into the strength of the university. So, it's a win, win, win in all directions,” she explains. 

A key strength of SCS is its ability to design, deliver, and evaluate high quality learning for adults, Dean Chandler-Crichlow adds. 

“That means that we can work with adults in any organization and at any level within that organization.” she says. 

“What really excites me about what we have the potential to do going forward is to continue to broaden our reach along different pathways and with different groups to continue to innovate within the micro-credential space itself. We are highly focused on the technical with Porsche, but there's a whole range of programming there that's just sort of waiting for us to tap into. That's very exciting.”

With this collaboration, U of T and Porsche Cars Canada are proving how customized, cutting-edge education can empower organizations to stay competitive in a fast-changing world. 

To learn how SCS can support your organization’s workforce training and upskilling needs, please visit our Corporate and Organizational Training services page.

 

2023 SCS Excellence in Teaching Award Winners Announced

Students sit in a packed classroom viewed from behind.

"These instructors do more than teach – they ignite curiosity and empower learners to pursue their goals with confidence.” - SCS Dean Catherine Chandler-Crichlow.

Every year, the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies celebrates outstanding instructors who embody excellence in adult education. The SCS Excellence in Teaching Awards are driven by nominations from learners who feel their instructors have gone above and beyond to deliver engaging, impactful, and supportive learning experiences. 

“As educators, these instructors do more than teach – they ignite curiosity and empower learners to pursue their goals with confidence,” says SCS Dean Catherine Chandler-Crichlow. “Their dedication to fostering a love for lifelong learning and their commitment to student success are truly commendable. We are proud to celebrate their achievements and contributions to the school."

The Excellence in Teaching Award winners for the 2022-2023 academic year are: 

Jessica Westhead - Creative Writing
Westhead’s learners describe her as an enthusiastic, encouraging instructor with a genuine commitment to helping them grow and improve their craft. Her inclusive teaching methods and tools keep her class materials engaging, relevant, and accessible. Her dedication, expertise, and innovative teaching strategies make her an excellent educator.

Mary McBride - Languages
McBride is described by her learners as a passionate and dedicated instructor with a wealth of knowledge to share. She ensures that her learners feel comfortable, supported and valued and goes above and beyond to help them master the languages she teaches. 

Laetitia Walbert - Languages
Learners say Walbert is s an exceptional French teacher whose dedication to her craft is demonstrated through her meticulous preparation and her ability to tailor lessons to suit diverse learning styles. With a patient and supportive approach, she offers clear, engaging, and well-structured classes that make learning both enjoyable and effective.

Bernard Feder - Marketing and Communications
Feder’s learners describe him as a dedicated, knowledgeable and kind instructor. He exudes energy and passion for his subject matter and cultivates a respectful classroom environment. He is an excellent communicator and challenges learners to think critically.

J. Kent Messum - Creative Writing
Kent Messum’s learners describe him an instructor who teaches by example. He is  extremely organized and fosters a respectful and supportive environment for the writers in his classes while providing meaningful feedback to help learners’ skills and confidence grow. 

Jayna Grassel - Marketing and Communications
Learners say Grassel is a dedicated, innovative instructor who has a profound impact on their learning experiences. She provides personalized support and creates an inclusive classroom environment. Her enthusiasm and passion for the subject she teaches are infectious, inspiring learners to strive for excellence. 

Stephan Dyer - Career Development and Communications Skills
Dyer is described by his learners as an exceptional presenter who is passionate and motivated to pass along his skills. He fosters a strong sense of community in the classroom and provides detailed, constructive feedback.

Ed Burns - Business, Finance and Management
Burns’ learners say it is immediately clear how much he loves sharing his knowledge and empowering the people in his classrooms to make an impact in their workplaces with the tools he introduces them to. He approaches teaching with enthusiasm, passion, kindness, and humour.

Barbara Isherwood - Visual Art and Architecture
Learners say Isherwood is a gifted instructor who creates an inviting and accessible environment where anyone can learn about art, regardless of their level of knowledge. She is engaging, knowledgeable, passionate, and respectful, and her enthusiasm for her subject matter is infectious. 
 

SCS Launches New Accessibility Plan

Body

“EDI is a core value of our division, and we strive to build our culture around these principles.” – SCS Dean Catherine Chandler-Crichlow

The University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies has launched its accessibility plan for 2024 to 2027. 

In addition to laying out SCS accessibility goals, the plan includes information on the school’s AODA working group, and highlights EDI-related achievements, such as the creation of accessibility guidelines for subject matter experts who develop courses with SCS; participation in the Moving Towards Opportunity (MTO) Program; and a panel on navigating disability in the workplace. 

“EDI is a core value of our division, and we strive to build our culture around these principles. Our purpose is to strengthen human potential one individual, one organization and one community at a time,” says SCS Dean Catherine Chandler-Crichlow. 

“SCS is focused on ensuring all members of our SCS eco-system are supported and can access our working, learning, teaching, and collaboration environments in an inclusive, meaningful, and barrier-free way.”

Please visit our EDI page to read the full accessibility plan.   

SCS B2B Marketing Course Helps Sales and Marketing Manager Tell Brand Story

A person wearing a plaid shirt gestures in front of a laptop.

"I would go to class on Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning I'd be trying to implement something that I learned." - Tilo McAlister, SCS learner

When Tilo McAllister found himself working in B2B (business-to-business) marketing, he knew he would need to hone a very specific set of skills. So when it was announced that SCS instructor Tyler Calder, who McAllister had already taken Search Engine Marketing with, would be teaching a new B2B Marketing course, the next step in his learning journey was clear.

“A lot of the marketing courses out there are catering to B2C (business to consumer) and B2B and all this different stuff, trying to be everything at once, and I liked that this course was very focused,” he explains.

Currently the national sales and marketing manager for T&T Power Group, McAllister says his background was in sales, but he was always drawn to the storytelling aspect of marketing.

“While I do love the one to one nature of sales, I really like being able to influence the overall communication strategy of the company and the messaging that we put out to our audience and the entire marketplace,” he elaborates.

The knowledge and skills McAlister picked up in his B2B Marketing: Fueling Revenue Growth classes were instantly applicable to his work.

“All of the assignments and practical work exercises that we did, I just did on my current business. So I was able to develop content and strategies that I'm using right now,” he says.

“I would go to class on Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning I'd be trying to implement something that I learned, so that was really cool.”

McAllister says one of the most valuable lessons he learned in class was about taking a coordinated approach to marketing and sales strategy.

“They are truly integrated at this point,” he says. “They don't exist in a silo. They really have to be united and coordinated in their strategy and I think that was kind of one of Tyler’s major messages throughout the course.”

Calder’s advice was particularly valuable to McAllister because he speaks from up-tp-date professional experience in both sales and marketing management. McAllister says he also found himself pleasantly surprised at the level of engagement Calder was able to encourage through his welcoming and informal online teaching approach. 

“I've done a number of online courses and it's just a ghost land of blank profile pictures and it seems like the poor instructor is just talking to nobody,” he explains.

“I've never been in a course with that many people who are just comfortable to be on camera for the entire thing. And because of that I really feel like I connected with the other people in the class a lot more. It was really nice.”

In addition to enjoying Calder’s teaching style, McAllister says the course content was appropriately challenging, while also being applicable to his work right away, and that he got a lot out of participating in the course live.

“The discussions that would come up were really good. I liked having the opportunity and the invitation to actually participate in a bit of a dialogue, not just one way content,” he shares. 

“Every week there was a good question that led to a little bit of debate and it would often be a question he would ask at the start where everyone would chime in and give their opinion and then he would share his. That was that was a fun learning process.”

Asked who he would recommend the course to, McAllister says it's fantastic for people who are maybe new to marketing or new to B2B because it covers excellent foundational knowledge. 

“I'd say the group that I was with were all either kind of new to marketing or new to B2B or some of them just were maybe feeling a little stale after being in marketing for a long time and maybe not being so versed in newer up-to-date practices, specifically in digital marketing,” he adds.

For himself, McAllister says the course has helped him gain newfound confidence in his own skills and abilities.

“In my case, I took it on because I have the sales background that I have a lot of industry knowledge now but I felt like I was kind of missing a real chunk of foundational knowledge. We've been having great wins and success with our marketing, but I thought, you know, if I actually knew what to do, this would be easier,” he laughs.

“I think having some formal education empowers you to defend your ideas a little bit better and stick up for yourself in the discourse of business strategy and give a reasoning behind your gut feelings.”

For anyone thinking about taking B2B Marketing: Fueling Revenue Growth, McAllister’s advice is simple: “Just do it,”  he says. “But maybe more so, expect to enjoy it. I look forward to Tuesday night's lecture, like I look forward to like dropping volleyball on Thursdays.”

 

2024 Janice Colbert Poetry Award Winners Announced

An ornate green and gold pen lies on an open page with blurry cursive text.

Hannah Lee is the 2024 first place winner of the Janice Colbert Poetry Award.

Created by award-winning poet Janice Colbert in 2012, the Janice Colbert Poetry Award honours SCS learners who have created a piece of poetry that moves us. 
Janice, who is an SCS Creative Writing Certificate earner, helps us celebrate the journey towards creative discovery through her generous award. This annual honour is valued at $1,000, plus two finalist awards of $500 each.

1ST PLACE/$1,000 AWARD WINNER: Hannah Lee

Hannah Lee

Hannah Lee is a lawyer who has spent most of her career advising, representing, and advocating for persons with disabilities. She lives with her inter-generational family in the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. 

Lee says that “Writing poetry isn't sticky like a bad habit. Yet. But that's something I'm currently working towards. Changing. I'm cautiously thrilled to be this year's winner of the Janice Colbert Poetry Prize; for the metaphoric kick in the pants from this bit of encouragement.”

“Hannah Lee’s poetry is at once familiar and new. Her poems play in a space of contradictions, demanding on one line and disarming in the other. Lee's writing beckons us to peer into someone else’s world, and in doing so, recognize our own. - Sheeza Sarfraz, Editor, The Quarantine Review and Janice Colbert Award juror

FINALISTS/$500 AWARD WINNERS: Maude Abouche and Antigone Oreopoulos

Maude photo

Maude Abouche is a queer, neurodivergent, and half-Moroccan writer from Montreal. She draws inspiration from her mixed cultural heritage and identities to explore the liminal and interstitial through speculative fiction. Her story “Blabbermouth” received an honourable mention in the 2023 Penguin Random House Student Award for Fiction, and her short fiction has appeared in Hexagon Magazine, Haven Speculative, and Augur Magazine under her pen name, Madi Haab. She is also communications coordinator for the French-language speculative magazine Brins d’éternité, where she has published book reviews and essays. Find her at lamotdite.com or on Instagram, Bluesky, and Twitter @lamotdite.

“With visceral imagery and pared-back language that packs a punch, Maude Abouche’s suite of poems pulls the contemporary human condition into conversation with the world: a butterfly is “a dry leaf fluttering about my feet” and there are “sizzling server farms guzzling drinking water in Arizona to keep chatbots running.” Striking, spare, and sparky, these poems serve as a reminder that art can be both a mirror and, as famously espoused by Bertolt Brecht, a hammer with which to shape reality." - Leigh Nash, Publisher, Assembly Press and Janice Colbert Award juror

Antigone Photo

Antigone Oreopoulos is a caregiver, physical therapist, disability advocate, mom, and poet living in Edmonton, Alberta with her two children. When her son was three, he was diagnosed with nonspeaking autism but misdiagnosed with low receptive language and cognition. One day while writing a poem related to her grief from never truly getting to know her boy, a Google search landed her on an organization’s website that teaches students just like her own son to write poetry and song lyrics through text-based communication and a communication support partner. Finding communication for her son opened the door to knowing the real person inside the uncooperative body. These days, Antigone’s primary job is home schooling her son and being his communication support partner. Outside of that, she coaches other nonspeaking neurodivergent individuals in motor skills learning, exercise, and sport. She writes about violence against women, feminism and social justice, and, when lost, Antigone finds home again in a garden, on a dance floor, or at the edge of a lakeside dock.

"In these formally inventive and bravely vulnerable poems, we witness moments of innocent teenage crushes and sexual encounters that quickly turn to sex shaming and humiliation. We see the cycle of violence escalate inside a marital home swallowed by a black hole of domestic abuse. By courageously confronting these past traumas and memories, the speaker reclaims her power, finding strength, resilience, healing, and hope. Oreopoulos powerfully casts a spell for survivors 'to rid the pain that has built a home / in their body.'” - Hazel Millar, Publisher, Book*hug Press and Janice Colbert Award juror

For more information about the Janice Colbert Award, please visit our bursaries and awards page. 
 

Penguin Random House Canada Student Award for Fiction Winners Announced

Typewriter

This year’s first place prize has been awarded to Ruth Taylor for her work, Duck/Rabbit.

Each year, the Penguin Random House Canada Student Award for Fiction is awarded to an SCS creative writing learner whose work and commitment to creative expression inspires us. This year’s first place prize has been awarded to Ruth Taylor.

Two prizes have also been awarded to this year's runners up: Joanne Lam and Katarina Young .
 

WINNER ($2,500 PRIZE):

Ruth Taylor

Ruth Taylor, Duck/Rabbit

Ruth Taylor worked as a journalist in Guatemala for a decade before returning with her family to Canada and taking up fiction. Her stories have appeared in the Dalhousie Review, the Massachusetts Review and most recently, the Potomac Review, among other venues. She now lives and writes in London, Ontario, where she continues to be fascinated by the relationship between people and place.

“In assured and fluid prose, Ruth Taylor leads us through a story glimmering with complexity and possibilities, giving us a glimpse into the heart of a captivating character. A young woman working in a city office feels alienated from her co-workers, yet loves her cubicle's window which looks onto a blank square of lawn—snow-covered, at present. Details and observations are sure-footed and precise, with interiority and hints of depths beneath, in a vivid piece that is tantalizing and suggestive, unexpected and memorable,”  says award judge Dawn Promislow.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS ($1,000 PRIZE EACH):

Joanne Lam

Joanne Lam, Queen Mother

Joanne Lam was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Canada with her parents when she was eleven. Since she was a child, she has loved using her imagination. She is a registered architect and co-founder of Picnic Design, an architecture and interior design firm based in Toronto.  In both her design work and her writing, she is interested in weaving the past and present into the creation of future stories.

“In her novel, Queen Mother, Joanne Lam’s stark and simple style choices align perfectly with the trauma of war and famine which they detail,” says award judge Rajinderpal Pal.

“The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during WW II is told in journalistic, matter of fact, emotionally detached prose as the Lam family—led by the intrepid grandmother—spiral into extreme poverty and desperation. The excerpt leaves the reader yearning to learn more about how this and future generations of the family survive and how the as-yet-unborn grandchild happens to narrate their story.”
 

Katarina Young

Katarina Young, The Fall

Katarina Young is a writer living in Toronto. She has researched the experience of aging and receiving care through her background in health studies, public policy and clinical research, as well as time spent volunteering in long-term care. She is currently enrolled in the U of T School of Continuing Studies Certificate in Creative Writing. She is on a journey of sharing her writing on Substack @katarinayoung.

“Katarina Young’s The Fall is a beautifully affecting study of aging. Equal parts intimate and incisive, Young’s prose draws the reader into a compassionate portrayal of elderhood, challenging their perspective on the old and the new. Her ability to realize characters so quickly and fully, and to echo their experiences with such a vivid setting (a house that is a character in itself—holding memories, love, and pain) is striking. And the way in which she manages to give a voice to a literally voiceless woman, without ever having her speak words, is simply brilliant. This piece is a lifetime achingly encapsulated, tenderly drawn, and utterly unforgettable,” says award judge Megan Kwan.

 

Records Disposal Manager Levels Up with the Help of SCS Records and Information Management Certificate

Stacks of folders

“It really was so helpful with understanding the content when I was able to bring the assignment to my work environment.” – SCS Learner, Cori Cirolia

Records disposal manager Cori Cirolia knew she wanted to become a part of the Institute of Certified Records Managers, but found herself at an impasse.

“I was struggling to understand the prep exam coursework and they suggested that I attend the U of T School of Continuing Studies Records and Information program School of Continuing Studies Records and Information program to assist with understanding the information and to also be able to join after the successful completion of the courses,” she explains.

Cirolia works at a police department in the US as a Records Disposal Manager & FOIA Manager, where she is responsible for implementing a department-wide retention schedule, maintaining the department’s paper records storage room, completing digital records disposal certificates, and working with the IT department to ensure her department is compliant with all state mandates. She also works alongside the department’s Information Services to ensure all FOIA requests are received and processed according to the law.

“I like keeping things organized and on a system. I also like helping the police department maintain their integrity and fostering open communication with the public,” she says.

The coursework in the SCS Records and Information Management certificate encouraged Cirolia to understand records management from a more ”big picture” perspective with regards to how integral it is to work with everyone in the department to ensure efficiency and effectiveness when it comes to the retention of public documents in a government building.

Cirolia says the instructor who taught Records & Information Management Strategies gave learners the choice of personalizing all assignments so they could essentially be a practice run for their real work.

“It really was so helpful with understanding the content when I was able to bring the assignment to my work environment,” she says.

“The instructor even took the time to approve rough drafts and provided much needed suggestions, etc. I really learned a lot and I felt so much more comfortable when we finally presented our assignment.”

The school’s user-friendly learning platform, and engaged instructors who replied to questions regularly and in a timely fashion and really took the time to explain things thoroughly, fostered a welcoming learning environment, says Cirolia. Her biggest challenge was balancing her work, home life, and studying.

“I found that working fulltime and being a mother of three children has all of its own demands,” she explains, “but the information that was provided for reading and class preparation was excellent and was able to be completed on our time so that when we had to attend a scheduled live discussions, the class presentations were very organized, detailed enough to get the points across, and all professors stayed within their timeframe so I was able to still get all family and work obligations completed without too much stress.”

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