Alumni & Friends Network

Digital dynamo: PR grad programmed for success

Just seven years after graduating from Algonquin’s Public Relations program in 2006, Kelly Rusk found herself working as a digital media expert at Banfield, a well-known Ottawa marketing and communications agency that’s been around since the word digital meant a wristwatch with flashing numbers.

Within two years of joining Banfield, she was a partner in the business and now serves as the agency’s digital director. If this seems like overnight success, don’t be fooled, says Rusk. Continue reading →

Smart Hands: Graduate scores with sports massage business

Basil Phillips learned a lot when he attended Algonquin’s Massage Therapy program in the late 1990s. But there was something missing, he says.

Thanks to the veteran massage therapist himself, the gap has been filled.

Phillips became interested in massage therapy because of his background in sports. He was looking for a business that would continue to keep him involved in athletics, he says. Continue reading →

Good Publicity: PR grad transitioned from Algonquin job to federal government

In 2002, Andrew McKelvey went from being a full-time Algonquin student to being a full-time public relations professional without having to change his morning commute.

“Most people go out and pound the pavement (to find work), but I just had to walk up to the fifth floor of C Building,” says McKelvey, who had a job waiting for him in the College’s communications department after his graduation from Algonquin’s two-year diploma program in Public Relations. Continue reading →