To mark Jewish Heritage Month in May, author and photographer Marnie Salsky is releasing her book A PEOPLEHOOD | AMIUT YEHUDIT.

The book offers a thoughtful and nuanced exploration of Jewish identity in Toronto, examining how culture, history, faith and personal experience intersect in one of the world’s most diverse cities. Having received her MFA in Documentary Media Studies from TMU with a thesis focus on Jewish identity, Marnie is an expert in this field.

Through photographs, archival imagery, interview excerpts, and fragments from social media and print news, Marnie captures the complexity of Jewish life and how identity is carried, remembered, and lived, while engaging with questions of belonging and the realities of antisemitism. Rather than focusing on policy or ideology, the book offers a visual meditation on the everyday realities of Jewish life, identity and resilience. While rooted in Toronto, its themes extend beyond geography, resonating with Jewish communities globally.

Tamsin McMahon, Journalism ’00, built an award-winning career defined by rigorous reporting and editorial leadership, culminating in a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News in 2024 for her work with Lookout Santa Cruz. A respected journalist and editor, she passed away in March 2026 at the age of 48, leaving a lasting legacy in newsrooms across Canada and the United States.

Aloysius and his colleagues Valérie Ouellet (a TMU journalism instructor), Mike Crawley, Andreas Wesley and Catherine Cullen won Gold in the Data Journalism category at the 2025 Canadian Association of Journalism Awards. They received the honour for their CBC News: Investigative Unit piece, “Canada’s international student spike was blamed on private colleges. Here’s what really happened,” which analyzed data obtained through access to information requests.

Lawrence is co-artistic director at the Canadian Art Song Project (CASP), a performing arts organization based in Toronto. Its mission is to “build on the rich legacy of Canadian song by engaging composers, writers and performers to create new music while providing opportunities for Canadian artists to champion the wealth of existing song literature.” CASP was nominated for a 2025 JUNO Award in the category of Classical Album of the Year (Small Ensemble) for their recording Known to Dreamers: Black Voices in Canadian Art Song. The recording features “The Colour of Joy,” a work CASP commissioned in 2022 by Canadian composer Maria Thompson Corley, with commissioned texts by Toronto writers Christene Browne and Kanika Ambrose for soprano Jonelle Sills.

In 2024, I won a gold National Magazine Award in the Feature Writing category for my story, ‘Books Behind Bars.’ The piece explores the importance of access to information in prisons.

I’ve mostly [been] trying to find my space in the tech industry. I’ve tried big and small companies, hopping from CGI to Lumeto and landing at Bazaarvoice. I learned how to code and now I am proud to call myself a product manager at Bazaarvoice. I also recently travelled to South Korea and proposed to my partner of six years (who is also a TMU graduate)!

During my time at TMU, I had the honour of being featured in Kaleidoscope No. 3, where I shared the story behind my very first song titled Delicate. At the time, it was just the beginning of my journey as a singer and songwriter. Now, years later, it feels incredibly full circle to be releasing my debut EP (under my artist name Kristian King) also titled Delicate. The project is a collection of eight songs inspired by my lived experience as a young Black queer artist navigating identity, growth and self-expression in my early 20s.

Wintta’s company, Moon Trades Technologies, was named one of the top 50 early-stage companies globally and received a TiE50 2025 award at TiEcon Silicon Valley. TiE (which stands for The IndUS Entrepreneurs) is a non-profit organization founded by prominent Indian-American entrepreneurs with the goal of fostering entrepreneurship. Moon Trades Technologies, which was founded by Wintta in 2023, develops AI-powered autonomous systems for mineral exploration. Wintta is also a passionate advocate for diversity in STEM and holds leadership roles with Women in Aerospace Canada and Space Place Planetarium Canada.

After creating multiple award-winning short films, Joanna made her feature film directorial debut with The Killgrin, a horror film released by MPI Media Group’s Dark Sky films. The film stars Konstantina Mantelos (Anything for Jackson), Cristo Fernández (Ted Lasso), Adam Tsekhman (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) and Peter MacNeill (Nightmare Alley). The film covers after a personal tragedy that befalls the protagonist, Miranda, who then explores unconventional self-help methods, only to learn from a spiritual healer that she has an infection of her aura called a ‘killgrin,’ which thrives off her misery.

Mississauga, Ont.-based freelance journalist Fatima Syed was awarded a 2024 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award for her work in The Narwhal. The Seal Awards celebrate individuals whose investigations and reporting elevate the public discourse on ecology and climate justice: “This year’s SEAL Awards honours journalists who have brought complex concepts to life and… cultivated relevance for a topic often pushed into the background of mainstream cultural dialogue.” Fatima is also the vice-president of the Canadian Association of Journalists and a winner of the 2022 World Press Freedom Canada Award.

It’s been almost a year since I took the leap and moved [from Toronto] to New York City. Adjusting to New York came with its challenges, and the job market was not easy at all. In January 2025, I landed a job that strongly aligns with my interests and brings me joy. I joined Kharon, a technology company that helps leading organizations identify compliance risks critical to managing financial crimes, supply chain exposure, export controls, investment risk and more. This company combines the interests that I’ve always had as a law and business student but also allows me to strengthen my knowledge and interest in marketing.

A production craftsperson who specializes in props and costuming, Sophie was the recipient of the Pauline McGibbon Award at the 2025 Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Each year, this award is given to an Ontario professional artist in the early stages of their career who has contributed to the well-being of Ontario’s theatre community, who displays unique talent and has the potential for excellence.