Isabelle Raghem, a student who is very involved on campus, is this week’s campus celebrity. Isabelle is in her fourth year at UWO, doing a degree in Media, Theory and Production (MTP), a collaborative with Western and Fanshawe. This program is very prestigious, seeing as only 9 students were accepted in Isabelle’s stream. The great thing about this program is that after four years, students receive both a Western degree and a Fanshawe diploma. In order to get both a degree and a diploma, the schooling would normally take 6 years (4 for the university degree and 2 for the college diploma). The program gives students the chance to have a more hands-on approach, where they gain work experience as well as learn the concepts of media, information and techno-culture.
Alongside of being in such an advanced program in her post-secondary education, Isabelle has also gotten very involved on campus at both Western and Fanshawe. Isabelle is an integral part of Western TV (formerly known as the Big Purple Couch), Western’s own television program in the media hub, keeping students informed on big events taking place on campus. Isabelle has worked with Western TV for three years now, pursuing a different role each year. In her second year at Western, she was the University Student Council’s minute update reporter, providing Western students with a short 60 minute weekly video of events going on around campus. In her third year, she was a lifestyle reporter, which included her segment called ‘lie witness news’, which received nearly 10,000 views, landing her an internship offer at E! Talk. Check it out!
Now in her fourth year at Western, Isabelle is the entertainment reporter for Western TV, interviewing celebrities that come on campus. Only a month into the school year, Isabelle has already interviewed two MTV hosts: Jessi Cruickshank and Aliya Jasmine!
Isabelle has also gotten very involved at Fanshawe. She is currently a reporter for 106.9 the X, reporting on events going on in London, as well as health. She’s covered everything from the first ever Beerfest event at Western, put on by the USC Wave and Spoke on September 25th, to the United Way Harvest lunch at Budweiser Gardens. Isabelle also reports on very serious breaking news stories through live call-ins on emergency events including fires and car accidents. She interviews the police and witnesses.
Isabelle has fulfilled some incredible projects over the past three years in the MTP program, and has been rewarded for her efforts. She has been innovative and used her creative skill set to create documentaries with meaning that have been entered in contests. One of the documentaries was done on a blind hockey tournament, which had some interesting features such as the puck echoing on the ice so that the players were able to locate it. For this documentary, she won a Mac laptop and a scholarship towards her schooling through the RTDNA (Radio, TV, Digital News Association). She also wrote an essay on the importance of women in journalism. Another documentary that she submitted was through Fanshawe, focusing on the topic of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. For this documentary, Isabelle won a full tuition scholarship to Fanshawe for that portion of the program.
In Isabelle’s spare time besides going to school, she works part time at the USC Wave restaurant on Western campus and was previously on the Western Dance Force dance squad. With all of her extra-curricular experience and motivation to get involved, Isabelle is well on her way to becoming one of Canada’s next big TV broadcasters.
HC Quiz:
Guilty Pleasure: Scandal and Dance Moms
Dream Job: Television host or broadcaster for a big TV station
Favourite Sport: Hop Scotch
Celebrity Idol: Oprah, because she started as a local reporter and then turned into a brand, now she has her own TV station and everything
Favourite Dessert: Ice Cream Cheesecake
Favourite Professor at Western: Professor Piyati
Favourite Song: Little Too Late – JoJo
3 Things You Can’t Live Without: friends, family and kittens
City You Want To Live In: Vancouver