Canada’s Youth Media Alliance has named Queen’s University student Kira Christie as this year’s recipient of its Steven DeNure Scholarship. 

Awarded annually to one or two students or recent grads from Canadian post-secondary schools, the scholarship is set up to partially fund a 12-week paid summer internship at a Canadian media company. YMA administers half of the US$6,500 cost of this internship, with the mentoring company covering the other half. 

An English Lit major at Queen’s, Christie is bilingual in English and French, and has begun studying Japanese and Korean. She also recently won a scholarship to study abroad next year at St. Andrews University in Scotland. 

Christie will be working with WildBrain for the summer starting on June 2, with a workplan that touches on content creation (development and production), audience engagement and franchise management. 

As part of her development stint, she’ll contribute to a new season of Netflix skating drama Finding Her Edge. This project is an especially strong fit, given that Christie has a background in competitive ice dance and singles figure skating. 

This is the third year the Steven DeNure Scholarship has been awarded by the YMA. Its aim is to support the development of industry talent by giving them early exposure to practical skill-building opportunities. Previous winners are Maria Bui (Lopii Productions) in 2024, and Shanelle Simms (BP Solarpunk Media) and Tania Gonçalves (Little Engine Moving Pictures) in 2023. 

Funding for the scholarship comes from former WildBrain president Steven DeNure, Canadian kids songwriter Marlowe Stowe, 9 Story Media Group, CMPA, Sinking Ship Entertainment, WildBrain, Breakthrough Entertainment and Portfolio.