Kelly Boutsalis said she’s excited to be speaking at the TEDxToronto festival next month.
“They provide you with a coach,” said the graduate of Humber’s Journalism program.
“So I’ve been working with someone pretty consistently for a while to make sure I’m really prepared for that takes a lot of the nerves away.”
Boutsalis is one of ten speakers at the event, which will take place between May 17-19 at the Royal Ontario Museum’s Eaton Theatre.
She’s already preparing her presentation with her coach.
“We’ve done a few table reads already, where it’s a few speakers on a zoom call at a time, and we practice and get feedback from all of the coaches,” said the Humber grad.
Boutsalis says her talk will be about her experience in journalism, including her time at Humber.
“Coming to Humber was a big part of my journey,” said Boutsalis. “I spent two years there, my time there will be briefly mentioned and what life is like as a journalist now, an Indigenous journalist.”
She says she learned a lot from her professors at Humber, and the opportunities she had in her final year.
“The internship was a huge thing for me, it was arranged for me in my second year and I ended up working there for seven years before I went freelance,” said Boutsalis. “So it was a huge part of my path to where I am now.”
Boutsalis graduated from Humber’s journalism program in 2007 and currently works as a freelance writer.
Lara King, a Journalism program coordinator, fondly remembers her former student.
“I remember working with her in the newsroom, she was so funny and smart,” said King who invited Boutsalis to participate in a symposium held at Humber in 2020.
King said the freelance writer is a great representation of what Humber journalism is, “lots of different kinds of things, lots of interests, so many different places, just a terrific human as well.”
Boutsalis’ LinkedIn page lists more than 30 publications she’s worked for, including big outlets like CBC, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and Elle Canada.
“It’s so terrific, our Humber students get to do lots of different things while they are here,” said King. “We’ve always placed an importance on not just focusing on broadcast, print or digital space, we wanted to get a well-rounded experience, I think because of that our grads are ambitious, they try different things.”