A donation from NBCUniversal to Humber College will support 20 Humber Faculty of Media & Creative Arts (FMCA) students in 2022. The NBCUniversal NextGen Diversity Scholarships will help students who self-identify as female, Indigenous or racialized persons and were established to help foster a future media landscape that is more diverse and inclusive.
"Education is the first point of entry to the industry, and donor support is critical to removing financial barriers preventing access to education," said Guillermo Acosta, senior dean, Faculty of Media & Creative Arts.
"Providing scholarships to equity-deserving groups is a great starting point, but to have NBCUniversal working with us to develop programming that will help change attitudes within the industry is also important."
The scholarships are open to students in several programs in FMCA: Film and Media Production, Film and TV Production, Post-Production, Film and Multiplatform Storytelling and TV Writing and Producing.
To show their gratitude for establishing the scholarships, third-year Film and Television Production students put their talent and skills to work by producing a video to thank NBCUniversal.
"Producing this spot was a great way for the students to be able to introduce themselves to the industry at large and say, 'Look out, here we come!'" said Donna O'Brien-Sokić, who teaches the program's Film Mastery class.
"It provided them a great opportunity to produce media in a genre they are not fully familiar with, taking what they know about media production and applying it in a new story format."
O'Brien-Sokić was pleased to hear of the donation. She witnessed a drastic increase in the need for financial support among her students since the pandemic began in early 2020.
The scholarship will take some financial pressure off students and encourage those who may have felt overlooked in an industry that traditionally undervalued diversity.
More information about Humber’s media programs.
As part of Humber’s Unlimited Campaign, the college has received support from industry leading organizations and international companies.
NBCUniversal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, world-renowned theme parks, and a suite of leading Internet-based businesses. NBCUniversal is a division of Comcast Corporation.