Ask a diehard Toronto sports fan to describe their dream job, and chances are, you'll find it on Devin McElroy's C.V. 

Since graduating from Laurier Brantford in 2009, McElroy has worked for each of the city's professional sports teams, including the Toronto Blue Jays, where he currently serves as Director of Ticket Sales and Business Development. Prior to joining the Jays, he'd spent 10 years at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), where, as Manager of Executive Suites and Premium Events, he netted an NBA championship ring with the Raptors (2019), and celebrated Toronto FC's MLS Cup win (2017).  

As passionate as he is about sports, McElroy says the highlight reel of his professional career includes more than those historic team victories.  

"Aside from those wins, I'm most proud to have been part of projects focused on reimagining and renovating venues like Scotiabank Arena and BMO Field, and more recently, the Rogers Centre," McElroy says. He’s relished the opportunity to ideate models for new bars, suites and seats that are designed to give sports fans an unforgettable experience. "It's been an incredible learning opportunity for me and very rewarding to see the new spaces come to life." 

Throughout his time at Laurier Brantford, McElroy acted as captain of the Laurier Brantford Charity Hockey Team. “It wasn’t exactly varsity hockey,” he jokes, “but the charity hockey games versus Mohawk College were always fun!" Off the ice, his pursuit of a B.A. in Organizational Leadership laid the groundwork for a career that aligned with his passion for sports. "At the time, I was uncertain which direction I wanted to take in life," he says. "Laurier Brantford and the Organizational Leadership program helped me establish a strong foundation to navigate upcoming opportunities.” 

Of the skills McElroy picked up as a Golden Hawk, he credits negotiation, effective communication and collaborative teamwork as critical to his success. "You could classify many of these skills as intangible and subjective, but the more I grow in my career, the more I understand how important they are." 

His advice for current students stepping up to bat in the classroom — and ultimately, the boardroom — is to pay as much attention to delivery as to content. “You can have the most impressive, well-researched and informative proposal, but if your audience has their guards up, they won't absorb it, and it won't move forward in a sustainable way,” he says. “Every engagement you have in life is an opportunity to connect with another person. The more you connect with people, the more open they are to receive your content.” 

As part of the first-ever graduating class of Laurier’s Business Technology Management (BTM) program, Abid Ali made a point of being deeply involved in student life from the very start. 

“Being involved is very important to the overall university experience,” says Ali, who was a member of the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) chapter at Laurier’s Brantford campus. 

“You get what you put into it and if you really want a fully immersive experience, you have to give, you have to become involved in the broader community.” 

After graduation, Ali began his career as an analyst at Bank of America and is now Director of security in mergers, acquisitions and divestitures at Canada Life.  

Over that time, Ali’s commitment to volunteerism and community service has grown. He is a member of the Wilfrid Laurier University Alumni Association (WLUAA) board of directors, where he began leading the board’s finance committee in September 2022.  

He has also been a keynote speaker at Laurier convocation and volunteers at university-sponsored events as an alumni representative. 

“I make myself available,” says Ali. “I feel like supporting other students, supporting alumni and supporting the university is a personal obligation of mine.” 

His small, tight-knit BTM graduating class includes friends Ali treats as family, he says, and his perspective on life changed due to the influence of key Laurier professors. 

“It’s my responsibility to give back to the community that gave me so much,” he says. “And I think that’s applicable to any other graduate coming out of university – you stay connected. You can get a lot out of it just by being involved in the broader community.” 

Yusuf Zine's 2018 documentary film, I Am Rohingya: A Genocide in Four Acts has been screened around the world. It's earned accolades at the United Nations Human Rights Council Refugee Film Festival, the One World Film Festival and the Global Migration Film Festival. It's been described by reviewers as a lesson "in how profound trauma can be worked through and converted into art, applause, affirmation, acknowledgment." 

"And it all started at Laurier Brantford," Zine says. 

In the summer of 2015, Zine, the son of Pakistani and Moroccan immigrants, had just been accepted to Laurier Brantford's master's program in Social Justice and Community Engagement. He'd also begun work on a play chronicling the experiences of refugee Rohingya youth he'd met while interning with Muslim Social Services of Kitchener-Waterloo. That original play would form the basis of his master's research project, and ultimately evolve into I Am Rohingya, which kicked Zine’s career as a writer, director, actor and producer into high gear.  

"I don't think the play could have achieved the success it's had if I hadn't been in that program, because it allowed me to have the knowledge, the skills and the opportunity to fully develop it," Zine says. As a master's research project, Zine had found the perfect incubator for the story he was so passionate to share, describing play rehearsals with his cast of refugee youths as both the inspiration for his writing, and an extension of the research itself. 

"I came to understand that this form of theatre, ethnographic theatre, where you're taking the stories of real people and dramatizing them, can have so many different impacts on their agency, on social justice, on advocacy," he says. "If I hadn't been able to work through this stuff at Laurier, I probably just would have done the play and that would have been it. But because I was able to incorporate more themes, it became much bigger than that."  

A year after earning his MA, Zine cofounded Innerspeak Digital Media, a Toronto-based multimedia content studio and production company. As producer, writer and director, one of his first projects at the fledgling studio would be I Am Rohingya, a film taking viewers behind the scenes of his play, following the young Rohingya performers — who had no previous theatrical experience — up to the night of their sold-out show. 

In 2019, he was invited to return to his alma mater for a lecture and screening of the film as part of the People Make History series hosted by Laurier Brantford’s History department. The annual lecture series, supported by funds from the late Mary J. Stedman, invites witnesses of historical events to share their firsthand experiences. It was a perfect fit for Zine's project and would prove a poignant homecoming. 

"It had been such a seminal time for me at that campus, so returning to that space to give a talk in front of former professors and people from my cohort was surreal," he says. "It was a very 'full circle' moment to be back with that film." 

Despite the honours and awards that have followed the film's screenings, Zine says he measures its impact by the activism it’s sparked among its cast. 

"Ahmed, one of the older kids in the play, has gone on to speak in the EU. Jaber, who was just eight years old at the time, has started a youth community organization in Kitchener-Waterloo. I've moved on to other stories and other projects, but for them, it's very personal and they will carry that on — and that's what I'm proudest of." 

For Zine, the success of I Am Rohingya proved that a marriage of his two passions — social justice and the arts — was not only possible, but it could also be the driving force behind his professional pursuits. In the years since, he’s produced an investigative true crime podcast for TVO (and a subsequent episode of The Passionate Eye for CBC) that reopened the investigation of a young man’s death in an Ontario prison. Another podcast for TVO, Extradition, followed the case of an Uyghur refugee who was extradited on contentious charges, and has spent the last 17 years in a Chinese labour camp. 

"One of the things I learned at Laurier was how to connect the global to the local," Zine says. "In my work, I like to create a case study that people can latch on to and care about, and use that as a vessel to address a larger systemic issue." 

"Whether you’re looking at the Rohingya, the Uyghurs, or the incarcerated, these people are our neighbours. What happens to them impacts all of us." 

For Business Technology Management (BTM) alumnus Matthew Raines (BBTM ’18), larger scale doesn’t always lead to better outcomes.  

“Most programs on the Brantford campus are relatively small compared to peer programs offered at other institutions. This was an attractive learning environment which I believed would foster a deeper connection with classmates and faculty,” Raines says. “This certainly materialized during my time at Laurier Brantford and provided me with opportunities I don’t believe would have been available elsewhere.” 

These unique opportunities – in Raines’ case, participating in the co-op program and BTM case competitions – kickstarted a career that has enabled him to make a significant impact in his community and contribute to causes he's passionate about.  

As a second-year student, Raines spent his first co-op term at a pharmaceutical company based in Brantford, where he supported a digital transformation initiative in the company’s Human Resources department. “Leveraging my coursework and strong execution skills, I was sent to the company’s global offices in Mexico and India, to launch an initiative on behalf of the Global Vice President of Human Resources.”  

In addition to this foundational co-op experience, which Raines describes as “incredibly transformative for my professional development,” Raines says that his participation in Case@BTM, an extracurricular business case-study program, was a catalyst to launching a successful career. 

“Through Case@BTM, I developed practical skills in analytics, strategy formulation and presentation, which I have leveraged throughout my academic and professional career,” he says. Raines continues to dedicate time to coaching a select group of BTM students who are looking to represent Laurier in international business case competitions. 

Now based in New York City, Raines is a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in the firm’s Engineering division and has worked across several technology domains and industry verticals, including pharmaceuticals, consumer, financial services and the public sector.  

Beyond his professional achievements, Raines is most proud of the impact he’s made in his community - recently been named Board Chair of the Kitchener-Waterloo Seniors Day Program, a non-profit community service dedicated to promoting health, wellness and dignity for older adults in the Kitchener-Waterloo region. It’s a role that allows him to give back, while tapping into the skills and experiences he gained at Laurier Brantford. 

Raines advises current Laurier students to look ahead— and lean in.   

“I recommend that students thoughtfully consider their future both within and beyond the walls of the classroom,” he says. “By starting with the end in mind, you can craft a Laurier experience that equips you with the skills and experiences needed to achieve your goals, whatever they may be. In your early career, leaning in and making a direct impact for your team, company or community can be incredibly formative for your career – and personally rewarding.”  

Keaton Davis wasn’t going to let precedent stop him from pursuing a big dream. 

As a first-year student in Laurier’s Business Technology Management (BTM) program, Davis spotted a role at Microsoft that he knew would be an incredible co-op opportunity. Trouble was, he'd heard Microsoft only hired students from either Business Administration or Computer Science programs.  

“That didn’t make sense to me because the Bachelor of Business Technology Management combines elements of both of those programs,” Davis says. “It’s more tailored to being in that business tech environment than any other program I can think of.”  

Confident his skills and interests were perfectly aligned with what Microsoft was looking for, Davis took a risk and applied and got the role. 

Snagging that prestigious co-op position at one of the world’s biggest tech companies not only cemented Davis’s belief that Laurier offered “the best co-op program in the country,” it also furthered his lifelong fascination with the intersection of business and tech. He relished the opportunity to apply his BTM studies at Microsoft, navigating technical challenges while also learning how to communicate effectively with non-technical leadership. The experience put him in a strong position to meet the demands of the modern workplace.  

“Nowadays it’s almost impossible to have a career where you’re not interacting with some kind of technical aspect,” he says. 

To complement his experience at Microsoft, Davis opted for a startup as his second co-op placement. EventMobi, an event technology platform for corporate conferences, proved an exciting challenge that would evolve into contract work, and eventually a full-time role after graduation. The next few years were a whirlwind of learning, growing and travelling.  

“This was the first time I ever got to travel internationally,” Davis says. “I went to Korea and Japan, and across America. I bumped into Justin Bieber at an event in Laguna Beach!” 

COVID-19 changed the trajectory of a lot of alumni careers – and Davis was no exception. Worried about how the events industry would be impacted by the pandemic, Davis decided to pivot. A role at Google within YouTube came up. 

“I was like, this is a no-brainer. YouTube is my favourite website in the entire world,” he says. 

Davis landed the job and now works with product and partnerships organization at YouTube, ensuring that all the major Canadian creators (including Linus Tech Tips, Throttle House and Unbox Therapy) and media organizations (including CBC, Bell Media, Corus and Rogers) have the best product experience on YouTube. 

“It's been a blast,” he says. “I work with creators that I've been a loyal fan of for years.” 

One of Davis’s favourite things about working at Google YouTube is the company’s “20% projects” approach, in which employees can devote a fifth of their working time to work within a different part of Google. Davis is passionate about venture capital and entrepreneurship, so he is investing his 20 per cent into working with venture capital funds and startups, leveraging his industry experience to advise on product strategy. 

Davis hasn’t ruled out a startup of his own in the future, likely in the field of consumer online digital entertainment.  

“I like stuff that people can pick up and say, ‘Hey, Mom, Dad - you have to try this app I found!' That's what excites me." 

For Marissa Gale, pursuing a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) at Laurier’s Brantford campus was an easy decision. 

“I was born and raised in Brantford, and have always had a strong connection to the community,” she says. The Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work first welcomed BSW students to the Brantford campus in 2014 – right when Gale was looking to follow her passion for supporting the most vulnerable members of her community. 

“I was drawn to the program because of the practical skills I was set to learn, as well as the opportunity to participate in work placements in both third and fourth years.” 

 

As a direct-entry program, BSW students begin social work studies in their first year, developing essential skills through a practice-based curriculum that combines theory with hands-on experiences. Later in the program, students can complete two field placements, which focus on bringing classroom learning to the workplace and developing students’ professional identities as social workers. 

For Gale, this experiential learning provided a solid foundation for her career. “Laurier’s BSW program taught me how to think critically, how to practice ethically and how to use my own social positioning to help others and the community at large.” 

Since graduating in 2018, Gale has dedicated her professional endeavours to supporting community members in need of mental health services – particular those facing financial barriers to accessing care. “I am now working as a therapist providing cognitive behavioural therapy at CMHA Thames Valley Addiction and Mental Health Services. It’s the only program in Ontario that offers structured psychotherapy at no cost to the public,” she says. “It brings me a great sense of pride.” 

Having previously worked as a crisis support worker and court clinician, Gale has a wealth of experiences and skills that she is happy to share with current BSW students. 

“One of my proudest moments since graduating was when my favourite Laurier professor asked me to give a lecture on crisis theory to new social work students,” Gale says. “This is now a lecture that I give yearly, based on my time spent responding to mental health crisis calls with the local police services.” 

Looking back on her own time at Laurier Brantford, Gale says it’s impossible to choose a favourite memory that stands out among four great years.  

“It would have to be all of the time spent with the amazing people that I met there,” she says. “I am still so close with many of the friends I made on campus, and even a couple of professors.”  

In addition to inspiring current BSW students as a guest lecturer, Gale advises Golden Hawks to lean into the Laurier experience. “University may feel long in the moment,” she says, “but in the grand scheme of your life, it is nothing more than a blip. Make sure you make the most out of it while you’re there.”

Cody Groat’s time at Laurier is more than just a chapter in his life. The result of his undergraduate years was, quite literally, an entire book. 

While studying History and Youth and Children’s Studies at Laurier’s Brantford campus, Groat interviewed more than 30 famous Canadians who were then featured in his book titled Canadian Stories. This self-published work included interviews with actor Dan Aykroyd, former prime minister Kim Campbell, and Michael Stark and Michael Leshner, Canada’s first legally married same-sex couple. 

It was a passion project that was encouraged by Laurier Brantford’s “exceptional faculty members,” who would recommend interview subjects and facilitate introductions whenever possible. 

“I had a midterm scheduled the day former prime minister Paul Martin said I could come to Montreal for an interview,” Groat says. “My professor said, ‘Go to the interview — that’s more important.’ Laurier Brantford was really accommodating.” 

In the nine years since Canadian Stories was published, Groat’s own story has proved as compelling as any of his subjects. 

Immediately after the book’s launch event at Brantford’s Sanderson Centre, the newly minted graduate boarded a plane for England, where he’d spend the next year pursuing his master’s. The University of Birmingham’s degree program in World Heritage Studies had been developed in collaboration with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in Paris and struck a chord with the insatiably curious historian. 

“I’ve always been fascinated with National Historic Sites of Canada, and my partner and I visited as many as we could in our undergrad,” Groat says. “This program felt like a really relevant fit.” 

While presenting his master’s research at his first academic conference in England, Groat found himself on the speaking program alongside his former Laurier Brantford professor, now good friend, Tarah Brookfield. Catching up over lunch in a church crypt in London, Brookfield posed a question that would set him on a new trajectory — albeit in a familiar setting. 

“Why don’t you apply for your PhD at Laurier?” 

“I’d had no idea what I wanted to do with my life after my master’s,” Groat admits. “I was this student who had bumbled along first through high school and then my BA, and although I’ve never considered myself academically strong, I like learning and telling stories.” 

Although it was past the deadline, Groat took a chance on applying, and the return to his alma mater for a PhD was set. In choosing a research subject, he would draw strongly on his interest in storytelling, zeroing in on the federal commemoration of Indigenous Historic Sites. It was a subject that also held personal meaning, as Groat is himself Mohawk and a band member of Six Nations of the Grand River. 

“I wanted to examine how the Government of Canada, by choosing specific people, events and sites as being nationally significant, has cultivated a specific, state sanctioned narrative of Canada,” Groat says. “I studied how that related to sovereign Indigenous nations, and how our interpretations of the past differ from the federally imposed interpretations of the past.” 

His academic journey took on a new dimension when he joined the board of directors for the Indigenous Heritage Circle, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing the cultural heritage priorities of First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities. Eventually stepping into the role of president, Groat found himself at the forefront of key policy conversations during a pivotal moment. 

“It was really exciting because the period when I engaged with them was just as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act was making its way through Parliament,” Groat says. “In my role as president of the Indigenous Heritage Circle, I had the chance to meet with the Offices of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Canadian Heritage, as well as the Liberal Indigenous Caucus. We were facilitating conversations about how the UNDRIP Act could impact heritage legislation in Canada.” 

Although not all their advocacy efforts yielded immediate results, Groat emphasizes the importance of representation. “We got a seat at that table — and that matters.” 

His time as a PhD student also led to his first university teaching role, stepping in as a sessional instructor at St. Paul’s University College (now United College) at the University of Waterloo. The course on Indigenous studies provided Groat with an opportunity for a deeply personal teaching moment. 

“My dad, Bill, was a Sixties Scoop survivor and a transport truck driver — just an average guy,” Groat recalls. “I asked him to come speak to my class about his experience as an Indigenous person in the child welfare system. About three minutes into the lecture, he just started bawling his eyes out. He’d never talked about his life before, and it was just a release.” 

The experience resonated deeply, and his father went on to guest lecture several more times, including for Brookfield’s History of Adoption classes at Laurier Brantford. “He never finished high school and had some literacy issues, but he loved being a ‘university instructor,’ as he called himself. He wanted to tell his story so others could learn from it.” 

For the past four years, Groat has been an assistant professor at Western University, teaching in the Department of History and the Indigenous Studies program. His approach to teaching — shaped by his time at Laurier — focuses on connection, accessibility and trust. 

“At Laurier Brantford, we always called our professors by their first names. It was a casual, close-knit environment that broke down the usual academic barriers,” Groat says. “Now, at Western, I ask my students to call me Cody. Some find it strange, but it changes the dynamic. If students feel comfortable, they’re more engaged. Academia can be a very snooty thing, and I don’t think it needs to be.” 

Despite the larger scale of Western, Groat works hard to bring those Laurier Brantford-style values into his own classrooms. “I try to build one-on-one relationships with students, even if it’s harder in a big institution. It’s something I believe needs to be done.” 

As for what’s next, Groat is preparing to publish his PhD dissertation, Always a Part of the Land: The Federal Commemoration of Indigenous Histories, with McGill-Queen’s University Press, slated for release in early 2026. He’s also tackling a new SSHRC-funded research project that melds a personal journey with a familiar passion — storytelling. 

“The Haudenosaunee Confederacy and some other nations have a teaching where you have to consider the impact of your decisions on seven generations that come after you,” he explains. “That’s one of the teachings embedded in our Great Law of Peace.” 

His research is rooted in his own family history, drawing on archival records dating back seven generations to the time of the American Revolution, when the Haudenosaunee Confederacy relocated from its territories in present-day New York to what is now Six Nations of the Grand River. “It ends with my dad,” Groat says. “He was the seventh generation, and he passed away on May 22, 2022.” 

His father spent his later years reconnecting with his identity. “At the end of his life, he was discovering who he was and was quite comfortable with who he was — finally, as a Haudenosaunee citizen, as a Mohawk citizen,” Groat reflects. “I think that he really ended up in a positive place in his life, even though he faced personal challenges, including alcoholism, ultimately achieving over 30 years of sobriety and helping others along the way.”  

Groat’s work will explore his father’s story through the seven-generation framework, examining broader themes of intergenerational trauma, Indigenous masculinities and the long-term effects of colonial policies like residential schools and the Sixties Scoop.  

“That’s what I’m working on now,” he says. “The story of my dad.” 

For Kyle Johnstone, community policing has never been a job — it’s a calling. 

"In high school I did a co-op placement with the St. Thomas police, and that solidified it," Johnstone says. "I knew not only that I wanted to be a police officer, but that I wanted to be a police officer in St. Thomas." 

Determined to stay local, Johnstone attended Fanshawe College for Police Foundations and wasted no time in applying to St. Thomas Police Service upon graduation. He was hired quickly, and what followed was a distinguished 17-year tenure in the community he grew up in. 

His familiarity with the region and its residents helped him establish a sense of trust and reliability, key pillars of effective community policing. 

“Having relationships with people outside of policing was an advantage,” Johnstone says. “There were many times when I was able to draw on that to help achieve successful outcomes. And when people ask for you by name, when they want to know, 'When Kyle is working again?' — that’s the icing on the cake.” 

Despite his deep connection to St. Thomas, Johnstone eventually moved on — but only as far as Aylmer, just 20 minutes away. He had never imagined leaving St. Thomas, but advancement opportunities came calling, and he accepted a leadership role. Now, as chief of the Aylmer Police Service, he finds himself in a smaller but similarly tight-knit community, overseeing a department that is undergoing rapid modernization. 

“I’m kind of living the same thing on a smaller scale,” he says. “Aylmer has about 9,000 people, and I went to school here for a couple of years, so there are a lot of familiar faces. Community policing is just a bigger part of the job here, and I love it.” 

Throughout his career, Johnstone has remained dedicated to professional growth. Recognizing the increasing importance of higher education in law enforcement leadership, he pursued a Bachelor of Arts in Policing at Wilfrid Laurier University’s Brantford campus. The decision was partly inspired by one of his mentors and colleague at the time, Marc Roskamp, chief of St. Thomas Police, who had completed the same program. 

“In today’s policing world, to move into administration, a degree is all but required,” Johnstone explains. “It wasn’t something I thought about when I was younger — I just wanted to get out there and be a police officer. But later, I saw the value of continuing education in taking my career to the next level.” 

Although Laurier’s policing program is online, the proximity of the university’s Brantford campus was another deciding factor. “You have so many options online, but none of them are tangible,” he says. “For me, Laurier was tangible. I’ve been on the campus before, and that local connection made it feel real.” 

Balancing studies with the demands of law enforcement leadership was no small feat. While serving as deputy chief in Aylmer, Johnstone completed his bachelor’s degree, often sacrificing sleep to make it work. 

“Somehow, I got through it,” he laughs. “I knew if I put it off, it would be hard to pick up again. My wife, who’s also a police officer, was instrumental in balancing things at home with our kids. I’d get through my coursework between 10 p.m. and midnight with a cup of coffee, and that’s how I did it.” 

Since stepping into his role as chief in January 2025, Johnstone has been focused on modernization and building a strong leadership team. One of his biggest accomplishments so far has been recruiting a deputy who shares his vision, ensuring the department moves forward in the right direction.  

“The most important thing is surrounding yourself with good people,” he says. “Being the captain of a team means nothing if you don’t have the right players.” 

As for what’s next, Johnstone is fully committed to his current role, but he’s not ruling out further education. The idea of pursuing a master’s degree at Laurier is already on his radar. 

“I need a break first,” he admits. “I want to go on vacation without writing a paper at the airport. But maybe in the fall, I’ll start looking into the next step.” 

For now, Johnstone remains focused on serving his community, shaping the next generation of officers, and ensuring that Aylmer Police Service continues to evolve.