ABOUT

Maria Kestane is a radio broadcaster for Toronto's only 24-hour live news radio station, CityNews 680. You can hear her anchor live during the evenings by tuning into 680 AM or by listening on the website/app!

 

She previously graduated from Humber College’s Post-Graduate Journalism Certificate program in Toronto. During her time at Humber, she was the Culture Editor and Senior Reporter for the College's newspaper, Et Cetera. She would produce and edit weekly stories alongside the other reporters and editors. She also was a reporter and writer for the Faculty of Health Science and Wellness, covering stories for the Interprofessional Education sector. 

 

Prior to Humber, she graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) with an honours degree in criminology along with a minor in Spanish .Throughout her time at university, she studied the criminal justice landscape throughout Canada, exploring concepts such as intersectionality, youth justice, cyber crime, policing, Indigenous law, MMIWG and more. She found that learning about criminal justice happened through not only academic experts, but those who’ve first-hand been affected by the system and found the courage to share their stories. Maria believes that these stories explain some of the most traumatizing periods of people’s lives, therefore those who hold the capacity to capture the story also hold a great responsibility to do justice to both the subject and audience.

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Maria’s passion for storytelling goes back before university; it comes from none other than her 15+ year-career as a dancer and theatre performer. Being in front of either a live audience or a camera feels like home to her, and while she took a brief pause from it throughout her time at university, a part of her always knew she would return back to storytelling. After finishing her time at TMU, she felt more ready than ever to join a career field that fed her hunger for both storytelling and helping others; journalism.

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In her spare time, Maria finds herself working on her e-commerce jewellery business, DESIGNSBYMNK. She enjoys being able to provide her customers with pieces that will help curate their fashion looks and elevate their styles. Maria engages with her clients and posts content daily photo, video and written content via social networks such as Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest.