New scholarship from TMAC seeks to foster positive change

The Ontario Chapter of Travel Media Association of Canada (TMAC) has a new award for j-school students.

The award, known as the TMAC Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness Award, is meant to address hate and discrimination that BIPOC and 2SLGBTQA+ individuals face in different parts of the world.

The TMAC says they “believe a statement against anti-black racism is necessary. Our resolve is even stronger following several disturbing incidents of hate over the years against people of colour, including Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and the murder of Asian women in Atlanta.”

Rod Charles, chair of the TMAC Ontario Board, said the organization wanted to create this award to initiate positive change in a way that acknowledges the TMAC ethos. 

“We are about travel journalism, and as travel writers, photographers, bloggers, and people, like people who work for hotels and different places, destinations, we felt that we wanted to include travel because travel is what we do,” Charles said.

The new award asks students to submit a travel-related feature story highlighting issues of hate and offering suggestions of how positive changes can be made. The goal of the award is to:  “reward a journalist who can address racial, diversity and inclusiveness issues, the movement we are seeing to combat racism today, and propose ways that we can make the future better.”

All full-time journalism students in second-year or above with a minimum CGPA of 2.67 can apply beginning in Fall 2021.  

“It [the award] allows students to dive a little bit deeper, underneath the tourist perspective and maybe more of a personal experience,” said Asmaa Malik, interim co-chair of the school of journalism. “It allows students who have different lived experiences to share what a familiar travel destination might be like for them.”

Students can apply for this award and all the Fall Applied Awards on AwardSpring (external link) . The deadline for applications is Oct. 17, 2021.