I've covered everything from the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, to handling all media relations for Canada's largest student-run sports business conference, to the Al-Rashid, Canada's first purpose-built Muslim
mosque. My experience includes television, radio, and print/online.
Concordia Stingers "I love you" (video)
Concordia Stingers team culture (video)
Czech goalie Mrazek making friends and enemies (print)
Emilie Goulet forges Hollywood animation career (print)
Just say no to tampon tax (print)
The official demo reel is a minute long, consisting of four stories I've done the past year.
There are also several unpublished stories that I'd be happy to send to anyone. They include features on CFL agent Sasha Ghavami and Concordia Stingers women's hockey head coach Les Lawton, along with in-depth travel writing and news stories. For a resume, cover letter, samples, and anything else, please email me (valji.salim@gmail.com).
Concordia University journalism professors recently asked me my advice to first-years, and here's the sagely wisdom I passed down!
Life experience
Along with my extensive professional experience, I also have…life experience! I studied for three years at MacEwan University, first majoring in secondary education before switching into journalism for a year.
At 18, I paid my own way to the 2011 NHL Entry Draft to attend a sports career conference. Six months later, I was a fully accredited media member at the 2012 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships.
At age 20, I left Edmonton to move to Montreal as part of an employment exchange between the governments of Alberta and Quebec. I worked at a museum in Old Montréal, updating their website and assisting in communications. Then on to eight months in Paris, where I taught English at a high school and worked as a journalist.
What this translates to is experience in the trenches of life. I had to adapt to two completely different languages and cultures. I had to rebuilt a social circle three times…making friends with people everywhere (bars, streets, museums) and adapting to different workplaces and environments. I got robbed at 4 am in the fifth arrondisement of Paris, rushed to the emergency room in Lyon, and saw Stevie Wonder live on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City.
The skills I've picked up include better communication skills (teaching English in France helped with that), an ability to adapt to any situation (including a drug-addicted roommate), and leadership qualities that could only have been developed by being in situations far beyond my comfort zone.
