About Us

Verse City Workshop, 2008

Verse City is a program aimed at getting racialized and marginalized youth interested in pursuing careers in news media. The program specifically targets youth from Toronto’s priority neighbourhoods who face multiple barriers to education, employment and access to community services.

Our goal is to share the tools and skills necessary to participate in the process of producing journalism.

Through the Verse City program, we hope to break down barriers and develop greater access to university education and participation in the field of journalism for marginalized youth.

The Ryerson School of Journalism is proud to partner with the Violence Intervention Project (VIP) at East Metro Youth Services (EMYS) beginning in 2008 to help build and create the Verse City Workshop – a series of workshops held both at EMYS and at Ryerson culminating in a four day long summer intensive multimedia camp.

The VIP program has so far produced a newspaper (the VIP Voice) and a magazine (Say Word).

Please check out the Verse City blog

Programming Committee

Vinita Srivastava
Director, Verse City Project
Assistant Professor; Online Stream Director, Ryerson School of Journalism

Faculty Mentors and Volunteers
John Miller
Associate Professor; Associate Chair, Ryerson School of Journalism

Anne McNeilly
Assistant Professor; Ryerson School of Journalism

Janice Neil
Assistant Professor; Ryerson School of Journalism

Peter McNeilly
Adjunct Professor; Ryerson School of Journalism

Jeffrey Dvorkin
Assistant Professor; Ryerson School of Journalism

Don Gibb
Professor Emertus; Ryerson School of Journalism

Paul Knox
Assistant Professor; Chair, Ryerson School of Journalism

Student Programming Committee

Omair Quadri
Coordinator and Research Assistant, Verse City Project
3rd year Student, Ryerson School of Journalism

Michelle Owusu
Marketing Coordinator, Verse City Project
Graduate Student, Ryerson School of Journalism

Arti Patel
Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator, Verse City Project
3rd year Student, Ryerson School of Journalism

Lakshine Sathiyanathan
Outreach Coordinator, Verse City Project
2nd year Student, Ryerson School of Journalism

Kevin Young
Social Events Coordinator, Verse City Project
3rd year Student, Ryerson School of Journalism

Irene Quarcoo
Curriculum and Tech Coordinator, Verse City Project
Class of 2009, Ryerson School of Journalism

Julianna McDermott
Student Life Coordinator, Verse City Project
3rd year student, Ryerson Schol of Journalism

Ronak Ghorbani
Outreach Coordinator, Verse City Project
4th year student, Ryerson Schol of Journalism

Samantha Edwards
Outreach Coordinator, Verse City Project
3rd year student, Ryerson Schol of Journalism