Sam Simner: Putting Passion into Practice

By Camryn Farquharson

Sam's hometown: London, Ontario

Western MACS student Sam Simner aims to tell meaningful stories through his own 'lens', combining his love for business, marketing and his passion for content creation.

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When most people think of a mundane object like a streetlight, the last thing that would come to mind is a passion project. For MACS student Sam Simner, however, a streetlight just may be his next photography muse.

“I think I’ve always been more of a creative person,” says Sam. “I love that with creative projects, there is no right or wrong. Everything can be right.”

For the longest time, he thought he’d fulfill that urge to pursue creativity through business. After discovering an interest in business management through local NGO Junior Achievement, which offers high school students extracurricular financial and entrepreneurship skills, he enrolled in Business Administration at Wilfrid Laurier University. Soon enough, however, he’d realize that his path wasn’t as clear cut—or “in focus”—as he had initially thought.

While enrolled at Laurier, Sam ran the Sustainability Council and was in charge of all their content marketing. He recalls this experience as being the one that solidified his passion for content creation and led him to realize that this is what he’s meant to do as a career.

Fun Fact

At an event in Kitchener, Sam once met and photographed Bill Nye. Not only is Bill Nye the science guy, but he also turned out to be a cool guy (a cool guy who just happens to be famous!).

His desire to create and produce content was leading him in another direction, away from traditional business studies. His newfound path took him back to his hometown in London, Ontario, ready to take on Western University’s Media and Communication Studies (MACS) program.

While he has only completed the first year of the program, Sam feels grateful to have already had so many unique opportunities to broaden his perspectives on storytelling. One project in particular that he found both challenging and rewarding was writing a journalistic-style profile of his former boss for one of his class assignments.

As a MACS student, Sam has also had the opportunity to turn a hobby into a more serious business endeavour. A long-time photography enthusiast, he has found such joy in the opportunities that his home faculty FIMS has given him to story-tell through images— opportunities that go beyond the classroom and promote real-world experience.

"With photography, there is a unique way to capture the moment that no one's ever seen before. And I love that philosophy. I love that I can take my camera and see, say, a streetlight, and take a picture of it in a way that opens people's eyes to its beauty." - Sam Simner

In January 2025, Sam was hired by FIMS to photograph the annual 2025 MACS Career Conference, his first paid gig as an artist (with a gift card, but still)! He also recently began a photojournalism internship with the Western Gazette, the campus newspaper.

To Sam, the stories a picture can tell are limitless. While he often captures nature in his work, he finds himself feeling most inspired by the challenge of bringing out the beauty in “mundane objects”.

“Having the ability to capture things in a way that opens people's minds to their beauty is such a cool concept,” he says. “Photography, to me, is an opportunity to share the crazy ideas going through your head and present them in a tangible way for others to see.”

When class is dismissed, you will still most likely catch Sam experiencing the world through the lens of his camera. An active member of the Western Photography Club, Sam continues to seize every opportunity possible to better his craft as an artist.

Looking to the future, Sam sees himself in a role where he can channel his inner businessman and marketer, while producing unique and creative content for a brand. While he dreams of being a photographer of F1 race cars, for now he is taking away valuable lessons from the program, lessons he says are keeping him motivated and inspired.

“I think learning about my own confidence is something that's really come through during my time here. Being around a bunch of like-minded people who are also creative has really helped that.”

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Profiles in the Meet Our Students section are written by students in the Master of Media in Journalism & Communication program, who are enrolled in MMJC 9604 - Professional Writing.