Veronica Blake, Vanessa Brown, Aileen Donnelly and Vicki Gray met in September 2009 in Centennial College's fast-track journalism program.
This post-graduate program is truly multiplatform; the women have honed their skills in print, online, radio, television and magazine news writing, in addition to design and layout, photography, web extras and audio and video editing.
As part of their program, they contribute to the student-run East Toronto Observer, serving the community of East York, as well as the online edition, The Toronto Observer, which covers the GTA at large.
The women regularly contribute to the student paper, The Courier, in various capacities.
Sexposé is a result of their Beat Magazine class, and will be published in print, in December 2010.
The ladies will be heading off to internships January 2011, and will complete the program in April.
Their faculty editor is Lindy Oughtred.
The ladies feel they're experienced enough to take on the sex-beat.
Veronica BlakeA Scarborough girl, born and raised, 25-year-old Veronica is a journalism student and web consultant for The Courier.
Prior to Centennial College, she studied psychology at York University.
When she's not blogging or laying out stories for the East Toronto Observer, she works at her part-time retail job "selling high-waisted pants to old-ladies".
She's also one of the few 25-year-olds with a newspaper route.
She's a chronic over-researcher, frustratingly anal about page design and is always looking for new ways to waste time on the Internet.
She wants to write about what nobody is talking about, and thinks sex isn't covered well in the mainstream media; it's either too clinical or portrayed as a giggle piece at the end of the newscast.
While her conservative, prudish, Catholic upbringing may cause her to blush throughout the course of the project, she generally considers herself a liberal and liberated female.
Veronica enjoys procrastination, shenanigans and long walks on the beach.
She's still waiting for the sex-talk from her parents.
Victoria Gray
Victoria was born in Etobicoke Ont. and raised in Brantford Ont. She is now 24. She moved to Toronto in 2004 to attend Ryerson University. She graduated in in 2008 with a BA in Cultural Philosophy. She is currently studying Journalism at Centennial College.
Victoria is the Managing Editor of The Courier, does freelance photography and creates videos for Centennial College's Centre for Organizational Learning and Teaching.
In 2008 Victoria and three others organized Ryerson's Alternative Spring Break and took 12 students to Guatemala where they built three houses.
In 2010 Victoria was selected by Centennial College to go to the Dominican Republic to give workshops to children at a DREAM Project school and document the trip for future student volunteer ventures.
She has since had a photo exhibition called Universal Humandate, spoken about international volunteerism and global citizenship at many venues, created several short videos, and is currently putting together a feature length documentary about the trip.
Victoria volunteers for a queer youth group called Shout West and youth empowerment group Por Amor and sits on the Global Expereinces Abroad student committee at centennial College.
She has always been touched by social justice movements and is ever moved by the struggles of minorities and the oppressed.
Like anybody, Victoria loves sex and feels that mainstream culture does not represent the queer community very well nor does it represent older people, fetish culture or safe sex practices for those people.
In what little spare time she has, Victoria loves to do crazy things like sky diving, bungee jumping, rock climbing and some not so crazy things like hanging out with her cat Bocciccio, her partner and her best friend.
Victoria is still waiting for her parents to stop talking about sex.
Aileen Donnelly
Aileen Donnelly was born in Scarborough, Ont. At nine, her parents decided to relocate her and her four siblings to the wee town of Augher in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
Growing up the second oldest in a family where the children span a decade meant Aileen was a relatively innocent kid for as long as possible.
Aileen writes for The Courier and The Toronto Observer. She thrives on interesting conversations with random people whether it's during a scheduled interview or while standing at a bus stop.
Aileen enjoys long interviews and even longer stories. Summarizing is NOT her strong point (as you can tell from the length of this bio). She wants to explore the intricacies of different people and their personalities not reduce them to a sentence.
Victoria GrayVictoria was born in Etobicoke Ont. and raised in Brantford Ont. She is now 24. She moved to Toronto in 2004 to attend Ryerson University. She graduated in in 2008 with a BA in Cultural Philosophy. She is currently studying Journalism at Centennial College.
Victoria is the Managing Editor of The Courier, does freelance photography and creates videos for Centennial College's Centre for Organizational Learning and Teaching.
In 2008 Victoria and three others organized Ryerson's Alternative Spring Break and took 12 students to Guatemala where they built three houses.
In 2010 Victoria was selected by Centennial College to go to the Dominican Republic to give workshops to children at a DREAM Project school and document the trip for future student volunteer ventures.
She has since had a photo exhibition called Universal Humandate, spoken about international volunteerism and global citizenship at many venues, created several short videos, and is currently putting together a feature length documentary about the trip.
Victoria volunteers for a queer youth group called Shout West and youth empowerment group Por Amor and sits on the Global Expereinces Abroad student committee at centennial College.
She has always been touched by social justice movements and is ever moved by the struggles of minorities and the oppressed.
Like anybody, Victoria loves sex and feels that mainstream culture does not represent the queer community very well nor does it represent older people, fetish culture or safe sex practices for those people.
In what little spare time she has, Victoria loves to do crazy things like sky diving, bungee jumping, rock climbing and some not so crazy things like hanging out with her cat Bocciccio, her partner and her best friend.
Victoria is still waiting for her parents to stop talking about sex.
Aileen Donnelly
Aileen Donnelly was born in Scarborough, Ont. At nine, her parents decided to relocate her and her four siblings to the wee town of Augher in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
Growing up the second oldest in a family where the children span a decade meant Aileen was a relatively innocent kid for as long as possible.
Aileen writes for The Courier and The Toronto Observer. She thrives on interesting conversations with random people whether it's during a scheduled interview or while standing at a bus stop.
Aileen enjoys long interviews and even longer stories. Summarizing is NOT her strong point (as you can tell from the length of this bio). She wants to explore the intricacies of different people and their personalities not reduce them to a sentence.
Vanessa holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto, with a double major in history and english. She chose the big smoke to get as far away as possible from her hometown of Goderich, Ont., along with its 8,000 other residents, at least for a few years. She’s been here ever since. So why not write about sex and sexuality as it pertains to the world’s most multicultural city?
Vanessa has been an editor for the Courier, Centennial College’s student newspaper, since January 2010. She’s responsible for brainstorming stories for two of the school’s four campuses, one of which holds predominantly automotive students. She’s proud to say that, after 11 months on the job, she’s vaguely comfortable with the inner workings of a car.
This past summer, Vanessa went back home to fill the role of summer reporter for the Goderich Signal-Star. Needless to say, the opportunity gave her a newfound respect for the community in which she grew up. By August, Vanessa was eager to return to Toronto, if only to dig her heels into the sex beat. In her spare time during her stint at the Signal-Star, she followed the Sex Professionals of Canada’s fight to decriminalize prostitution. Hopping in her car and coming back to her adopted city was the only way to properly immerse herself in that story, and give it objective, thoughtful coverage for Sexposé.
