Congratulations to our 2022 Award Winners!

Cadance Tan is a fifth year Creative Industries student with an English minor and a specialization in Storytelling in Media and the Art and Business of Film. She is passionate about international education and has attended 5 international schools since 2019. She most recently participated in the Global Student Leadership Summit in November 2022 and hopes to continue pursuing international connections and gaining global perspectives in the media environment.

Gabriella Yapp is a fourth-year Creative Industries student specializing in Professional Communications and Media Business. An active member of the Creative Industries community, Yapp has demonstrated impressive contributions, enthusiasm, and warmth through entrepreneurial feats and collaborative approaches. An active member of TMU's Zone Learning ecosystem, Yapp worked with SVZ startup Knack to solve academic challenges facing international students and refugees. She was also a Marketing & Communications Ambassador at the DMZ, where she shone a light on tech startups innovating several domains in Canadian tech. Yapp was elected to serve four terms in office as Vice-President, Administration & Operations at The Society of the Creative School to represent 5,500+ undergraduate Creative School students. She was also the previous startup founder of Panther Pikture Studios, a startup creating animations to produce social impact stories about the effects of climate change. 

Yapp currently interns as a Communications Analyst at SVX, an impact investment firm providing a range of diversified financial services. Yapp aims to continue her vocation of making positive social impact via creative cross-disciplinary undertakings. In her spare time, Yapp enjoys taking care of her plants, writing stories, creating art, baking, and aquarium-keeping. 

Hello! My name is Trevohn Baker, and I am a 4th-year student in the Music Industry and Media Business modules. My academic career at TMU began in 2019, but it was in 2020 that I began to work here as an employee. My first-year experience and my personal life experiences inspired me to take on the role of the BIPOC Students’ Collective coordinator for over two years. I also worked at TMU within the Anti-Black Racism Student Advisory Committee for three academic terms. As a Black man, I felt that there were so many limitations yet unfathomably high expectations put on me. Then, with the pandemic thrown into the mix — I felt very othered, alienated and confused with my positioning at TMU. Through my employment, I could work on initiatives that I would have loved to see in my first year (granted, I was commuting from 2019-2021, so many resources were inevitably inaccessible to me).

Although a big chunk of my life involves equity and activism, a significant component of who I am is a result of music. I am a vocalist, and I love sharing my passion with people and using it as a way for me to connect with and heal myself. In the future, I look forward to combining my activism and professional music career to create more opportunities, exposure and experiences for the generations of youth that look like me. Receiving this scholarship is just the beginning, and I am eternally grateful!