TORONTO (February 17, 2021) Cultivating the next generation of journalists and empowering upcoming content creators to tell stories – in their voices – that are relevant to Canada’s diverse communities is a key area of focus for Rogers Sports & Media. As part of this ongoing commitment, OMNI Television will award $60,000 in scholarships over the next three years to post-secondary students across Canada who are pursuing careers in ethnic and third-language journalism.
“The global pandemic has reinforced how critical ethnic and third-language media is when it comes to engaging Canada’s multicultural communities with the latest news and information, and we believe the OMNI scholarship program will inspire more diverse young talent to pursue this important genre of news,” said Jake Dheer, Senior Manager, OMNI Television.
The new national scholarship program will award 10 scholarships of $2,000 each annually to students at universities and colleges. Students can visit omnitv.ca/scholarships to find out details and how to apply. This year’s scholarships will be awarded in August.
Rhea Santos
In addition to the launch of OMNI’s national scholarship program, Sportsnet also celebrates the first recipients of the Sportsnet Diversity and Gender Equity Initiative in partnership with Ryerson University’s Faculty of Communications & Design (FCAD) – home to the RTA School of Media, Global Experiential Sport Lab (GXSLab) and sport media research. Announced last January and launched in Fall 2020, the initiative empowers students from diverse backgrounds to pursue careers in sport media. Sportsnet committed $100,000 to provide scholarships to four students – two high-performing third-year students and two students entering the program – who identify as a woman, Indigenous, and/or a member of an equity-seeking group. The recipients of the 2020 Sportsnet Diversity and Gender Equity Initiative scholarships are Ella Bonaldi, Joshua Kim, Rania Elihali and Vanessa Catanzaro.
Today’s announcements highlight Rogers Sports & Media’s proud role in teaming up with Canadian universities and colleges to support and empower future media talent. Other partnerships include OMNI scholarships with the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Simon Fraser University, and KiSS 92.5’s GenNOW internship program with Seneca College.
The Rogers Sports & Media scholarships complement the robust Ted Rogers Scholarships program at Rogers which supports 1,400 Canadian youth attending post-secondary education. Building on the legacy of Rogers founder Ted Rogers, these scholarships are a meaningful way to help young Canadians discover their potential, strengthen our communities, and build a brighter future by overcoming the barriers to accessing post-secondary education.
OMNI TV is hosting a VIRTUAL Meet-and-Greet for multicultural groups interested in sharing stories relevant to their communities and getting their voices heard on the channel. The virtual session will take place on Thursday, March 11 at 6:00 p.m.
To register, please RSVP to jake.dheer@rci.rogers.com by 8:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 10 and we will send you the call-in details. Thank you.
OMNI Television is Canada’s only multilingual and multicultural television broadcaster. Available in 11 million Canadian households, the OMNI brand includes the national TV channel OMNI Regional plus five local television stations. OMNI offers a wide range of locally produced and acquired programming in more than 20 languages, including news, current affairs and entertainment content in Cantonese, Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Arabic, Tagalog and Punjabi. OMNI is part of Rogers Media, which is a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX, NYSE: RCI). Visit OMNITV.ca
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