Journalism Graduate Receives KPU Distinguished Alumni Award

Sports Writer Steve Ewen on getting the award, overcoming cancer, and tips for student journalists

Steve Ewen’s career in journalism has been successful, eventful, and a source of pride for Kwantlen Polytechnic University for over two decades. He completed his practicum in the program at The Coquitlam Now, eventually moving on to writing sports coverage for The Province. He still works there to this day.

For most student journalists, being hired fresh out of school and maintaining Ewen’s job security is a dream come true. He is a great inspiration to aspiring sports writers, with his considerable experience covering the Vancouver Canucks, Vancouver Canadians, Whitecaps, and BC Lions, amongst others.

He was still breaking stories and making deadlines in 2010, when Ewen was diagnosed with cancer. Spending months in the hospital and learning how to walk again put his career on hold, but he was optimistic about the future.The very next year, he was not only discharged from the hospital, but also working full-time once more.

Such remarkable achievements have landed him on the list of KPU distinguished alumni, for which he received an award at the university’s fall convocation on Oct. 6. Ewen describes the experience as “very exciting” and expresses his gratitude to KPU and its faculty for preparing him for his career as a journalist.

“I came in as a sports fan, not really understanding anything about writing in a newspaper style. It gave me the real basics [and] the contacts to go out and find a job,” he says. “It gave us a chance to really understand the way the business works.”

He says that his practicum at The Coquitlam Now, in particular, gave him the skills he needed to move up in the industry, and that he doesn’t know where would be if he hadn’t started out there.

KPU’s journalism program has changed greatly since he completed it in 1989. The classes that were once operated out of “a renovated warehouse in Richmond,” as he puts it, are now held in the beautiful, furbished buildings that stand tall on campus. The program is years longer than it used to be, and the curriculum is far different, but Ewen believes that the students in it are just as impressive as ever. He is extremely proud of the quality of the university’s graduates, and if he had to give them one word of advice, it would be to listen carefully and keep a level head while working on a deadline.

But if he had to give them two, he would remind them to be aware that “it’s a changing time” in the world of journalism.

“The way we have done things for 50 years are going out the window now, and we’re trying to factor in Twitter and blogging and Instagram and Snapchat, all those things. Be excited and learn everything you can,” he says.

Nevertheless, sticking to the basics of journalism are still crucial for success. Student journalists need to have primed people skills, Ewen advises.

“Essentially what we’re doing is telling people’s stories. We’re the history keepers, and if you can’t get people to talk to you, if you can’t get people to tell their stories, you can write like Hemingway but it’s just not going to work,” he says.