Undergraduate Career Conference 2019

Group of FIMS alumni wearing purple mittensOn Friday, January 18, 2018, The Faculty of Information & Media Studies (FIMS), with financial support from the Undergraduate Student Fund (USF), held a second career conference for 4th year FIMS students.

Building on lessons and ideas from the inaugural conference in 2018, FIMS invited 12 MIT and MPI alumni back to campus to talk about their career experiences and trajectories.

This year’s conference featured a keynote presentation from Angie Campanelli (BA’03). Campanelli has worked in media for her entire career. From Canadian lifestyle shows and red carpets to Huffington Post and documentary films, she’s immersed in MIT every day. Most recently, Campanelli began transitioning into digital media, teaching, consulting and blogging.

Devin Golets (BA’15), FIMS Career Services Officer also offered advice and inspiration to the students in a presentation debunking some common myths about job prospects and career paths for recent grads. He also led a brainstorming session about post-graduation plans and touched on the importance of networking.

Career Conference Gallery

Photo credits: Brett Petch (1-10) and Kathie Hess (11-20)

A series of breakout sessions were led by other alumni coming from a range of industries including Entrepreneur & Non-Traditional, Public Policy, Non-Profit & Government, Advertising/Marketing, PR/Communications, Journalism/Media Production, and Digital Communications & Social Media. The conference was held on campus at London Hall and also featured a networking dinner to allow students to interact directly with the alumni guests.

Esteemed alumni in attendance this year include:

Career Conference Program- Rebecca Ford (BA’12) – Director of Community and Live Operations, Digital Extremes
- Jasmine Irwin (BA’13) – Policy Advisor, Office of the Ontario Minister of Advanced Education & Skills Development
- Sarah Bugeja (BA’10) – Senior Director, Growth & Acquisition, Couple.co
- Liisa Sheldrick (BA’99) – Marketing Operations Manager, 3M Canada
- Kevin Hurren (BA’15) – Independent Writing Consultant
- Monica Rossa (BA’12) – Director of Ontario, Beattie Tartan
- Ryan Louis (BA’09) – Project Manager, VICE/Instructor, University of Toronto
- Tyler Buist (BA’12) – Associate Producer, CBC Power and Politics
- Spencer Daniels (BA’03) – Senior Product Manager, Ontario Digital Service
- Laura Mallozzi (BA’14) – Marketing Manager, Performance Marketing, KFC
- Lia Karidas (BA’10) – Senior Marketing Coordinator – CRYSTAL – Area (Touring Shows Division)

A committee of students, staff and alumni organized the conference, including Bianca Huang (FIMSSC Alumni Rep), Ariana Magliocco (FIMSSC President), Tracy Fawdry (FIMS Alumni & Development Officer), Kathie Hess (Manager, FIMS Undergraduate Student Services), Susan Knabe (Associate Dean, Undergraduate), Devin Golets (FIMS Career Services Officer), Meaghan Skinner (FIMS Undergraduate Student Services Assistant), Becky Blue (Alumni Rep, Western), and Laura Morrison (Alumni Rep, 3M Canada).

The committee would also like to acknowledge the FIMS Student Ambassadors who volunteered their time to help at the event, and MIT student Brett Petch (@brettjpetch), who served as conference photographer.