Diva Girls' Blog Post - December 7th (Rogers Trip)

Today was incredible due to the awesome support of Rogers Women's Network and the Canadian Women's Foundation! The girls took a field trip to the Rogers Media Communications' campus in downtown Toronto for a experiential skills development activity day with industry mentors.

Upon arrival, the girls were seated in a meeting room where one of the presenters, Samantha Crawford, started off with the Land Acknowledgement.

After that she offered a quick run-through of what we were going to do that day and introduced us to the people  in the room. This led us into the ice breaker game about what everyone wanted to learn while meeting new people.

The girls listed things like: the future, their name, cooking, food, and more. There was a lot of diversity in the things stated by both the girls and the women that work at Rogers. After the ice breaker, a guest speaker, Tracy Moore from Cityline TV, shared a presentation on confidence, resiliency, and how things are unexpected.

Tracy Moore of Cityline 

Tracy, who hosts North America's longest-running daytime show for women, talked about her journey through journalism to her present-day gig. She talked about how, even though people would tell her no, she would keep trying and, in the end, would succeed.

After Tracy had presented, the girls partnered up for a round robin type interview with the industry mentors.

 The interviews started with a brief introduction of the women working at Rogers and then the girls had the chance to ask questions. Some of the people being interviewed worked with the radio programs, TV broadcasting, or business issues in the company, so it was a nice range of expertise.

After a quick break, we took a tour of the broadcasting and radio stations. Though Focus has its own broadcasting and radio stations that the girls previously worked with, these well-appointed spaces really caught their attention. They liked the idea of seeing themselves on screen in a professional setting. This will help the girls' program facilitators to figure out what future activities can help put this experience into work.

During our tour, the girls were taken to the studio of Tim and Sid on Sportsnet and were even taken to the behind-the-scenes studio where they witnessed what made the recording possible (e.g., individuals making sure what Tim and Sid are saying can be heard and that teleprompters are going at the correct speed).

Studio of Tim and Sid

The girls were then given access to the Sportsnet room where our tour coordinator, Pilar Thomas, talked about what she looks for in someone she wants to hire. She talked about how a resume and experience can only take someone so far and that what really matters is the personality and how they conduct themselves at the interview.

For example, Pilar shared how she hired someone who had little experience and will do everything in her power to keep her at the company because of the excellent work ethic and professional personality. Hard work does pay off! I think this is one of the most important messages to get across, and I'm glad the girls had someone working in a high position of responsibility bring this forward.

Studio of SPORTSNET

During these tours the girls learned of careers they hadn't even thought of before, such as careers finding suitable clothing for famous guests.  The DIVAS were also very interested in the cosmetic makeup aspect of getting ready for the cameras!

Kiss 92.5 radio station

After this, they were taken to the radio studios, where they were able to enter the station of Kiss 92.5 and see Daryn Jones in action. He was very welcoming and even let the girls greet the listeners (so cool!). The girls asked him questions about the people he interviewed and got really excited to hear of some well-known personalities. A really good question was asked about how they conduct their outreach and get famous people to be part of their radio broadcasts. 

At the close of the hands-on tour, the girls returned to the meeting room for a closing talk and they were given gift bags from the members of Rogers before wrapping up the field trip.

Thank you again to Rogers and CWF for an engaging day, connecting youth with industry leaders, which we believe may help inspire the next generation of Canada's broadcasters.

The future looks bright, especially under all those high-power studio lights!

-Regent Park Focus, updated 2019