Humber Polytechnic’s Media Communications students stepped outside the classroom and into the field during a third-semester trip to Quebec City, where they had the opportunity to apply their media, marketing and storytelling skills through hands-on activities.
Organized through Humber’s Faculty of Creative Media and Arts, the trip connected students’ academic coursework with practical experience in a new environment.
Jennie Grimard, program coordinator for media communications, said the program is designed to give students a broad range of skills needed to work across the media industry or operate their own businesses.
“Media communications is a multidisciplinary program. Our students learn graphic design, photography, video, marketing,” she said. “They learn written and oral communication skills and online web. They learn a little bit of everything.”
The trip was connected to a media marketing course offered during the students' third semester, taught by Professor Louie Rosella.
Grimard said the experience was designed to complement the course material through an academic assignment tied to the activities.
The trip is funded through ancillary fees collected from students throughout their time in the program, Grimard said.
“Students have actually been paying towards this trip since they started in the program. It's part of their tuition,” she said. “This is how we can bring the whole cohort together. By making it a mandatory ancillary fee, there's an academic component.”
Accommodation, transportation and scheduled activities are covered through the fees, while students are responsible for personal expenses such as food and souvenirs.
Amanda Andrade, a Media Communications student, said she first came to Canada from Brazil. Her initial interest fell under the area of marketing, but over time she developed a liking for the creative side of things.
Andrade said the students were expected to use equipment such as cameras and tripods, and produce a field quality assignment.
“We had the opportunity to do video production, which was really cool. It was really fun creating our portfolios,” she said. “It was something that I will never forget.”
Andrade said if she had to choose a singular memory from the trip, it was Montmorency Falls.
“We had an assignment to do that was based in Quebec City. The assignment was in Louie’s class,” she said. “He gave us a lot of options since our program offers different types of topics. The main idea of the assignment was to promote Quebec City in general.”
Andrade said the formats ranged from digital, print and video.
“You could do a brochure promoting the city or video reels. You could do a photo essay, telling stories, which is what I did. I did a photo essay, because I like the historical part of Quebec,” she said.
Andrade said that the locations they visited along with the assignment were not very difficult for her, because she works as a tour guide in Montreal, with ISX Tours.
”I'm also a tour guide as a job in general, so I always go to Quebec City, Montreal and even Ottawa,” she said.
She said having been in the role of a tour guide for a long time gave her the chance to assist with showing her classmates good spots.
She said her teachers having a layout and plan before going to Quebec was helpful for a trip that is relatively short.
“We had an itinerary. They prepared everything beforehand, so it was really nice. You could tell they planned it with love,” she said.
Andrade said she hopes incoming students to this program remember to enjoy the time it takes to advance throughout the education process.
“Just take it easy. You're going to have a beautiful journey. Give your 100 per cent,” she said. “You will see how you develop your projects, and feel very included throughout by professors. We have a big international community in this program as well - So I really felt very included. All the professors are amazing."
She said having this trip for students who had never travelled to Quebec was nice to give them different scenery than Toronto.
“Each corner you look at in Old Quebec is amazing. It is so different from Toronto. It's really European style,” she said. “I feel like Montreal and Quebec, in general, are really artistic provinces.”
For Professor Louie Rosella, who teaches writing, social media and marketing courses in the program, the trip offered students an opportunity to apply skills developed throughout their coursework.
“My classes focus on the writing components of media communications: press releases, blogs, podcasts,” he said. “Even though those are audio components, there is a written portion of those.”
Rosella said the marketing courses also prepare students to present their work to potential employers, establish their personal brands and promote businesses.
“We teach them how to market, how to brand, and how to promote themselves and the companies that they're working for,” Rosella said.
Beyond the academic component, the trip also introduced students to an environment that was unfamiliar to many of them.
Rosella said several students had limited travel experience, with some having never travelled outside the Greater Toronto Area or Canada without a guardian.
“There was a very small number of students who had been to Quebec City,” he said. “We took a lot of pride in going to a location where there’s a rich history and a very distinct and different culture.”
He said the trip was designed to encourage students to explore their surroundings, experience a different culture and approach their work creatively.
“We wanted to kind of allow the students to immerse themselves in a different culture and learn about that culture,” he said. “They learned a lot about the architecture, history, food and the cuisine in Quebec City, all of which was done through the programming that we planned for them.”
Rosella said taking students outside the classroom allowed them to experience a different approach to learning, moving beyond lectures and presentations to engage directly with their surroundings.
The field-based activities gave students opportunities to take photographs, record videos, gather information and produce blog content in different formats.
“They had the advantage of having faculty there with them, to kind of coach them and guide them through what they were doing, which was awesome,” he said. “It was an interesting experience, seeing students doing the work and then coming over to one of us and asking a question and saying, ‘Is this good? Does this work? What do I need to do differently? And then kind of us bouncing ideas off of them.”
‘The fact that it is a field-based learning trip, they get to actually go out beyond the four walls of the classroom and being somewhere where they are learning in the field as opposed to in class, with a slide show and showing them how things are done, which is also extremely useful and helpful, but I think it was the dynamic of how they learned.
Having faculty members available throughout the activities allowed students to receive feedback while completing their work, Rosella said.
Rather than simply learning techniques through classroom instruction, students could test their skills, ask questions and make adjustments as they worked.
Rosella encouraged students to remain open to unfamiliar experiences and opportunities through their education and careers.
“You may find a lot of value in doing something outside of your comfort zone,” he said.
Grimard shared a similar message for students preparing to enter the workforce, emphasizing the importance of building initiative.
She said students should not be afraid to introduce themselves, reach out to industry professionals or pursue opportunities that may initially feel uncomfortable.
“I think networking and putting yourself out there in awkward networking situations, sending that cold call e-mail, making that phone call, introducing yourself to somebody. You never know where that's going to go,” she said. “ I know that it's awkward and uncomfortable, but I think that's the best advice. That's how you're going to learn about the industry, get ahead and build contacts.
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