By Abigail Cox
Second Year Journalism and Communications student and intern with Holland College Marketing and Communications

While Holland College students are busy preparing for exams and working on final projects, Journalism and Communications students Justin Arenburg and Grant Harrison found a creative way to earn their final marks. 

The two started the Waterboyz Podcast in December 2021. The podcast covers current sports and athletes all over the Island.   

Justin is in his second year and had wanted to start a sports podcast for over two years. The Journalism and Communications program gave him the opportunity to do it. 

“Last semester we had to do a creative final project and it prompted me to finally start the podcast because the college was able to provide us with all the resources to do it,” said Justin. 

Justin invited Grant, who is a first-year student in the program to co-host the podcast with him because of their shared interest in sports. 

Throughout this semester, the duo has produced a new episode each week covering different athletes and sporting events. They spend about 25 to 30 hours a week on the podcast, between filming, editing, communications, and social media. 

“Learning everything in terms of social media, promoting it, editing skills, and the storytelling skills that I’ve learned throughout this program have helped so much,” said Justin. “It’s not work at all, it’s so much fun. It is so nice to cover a variety of sports because we get to interview in-season athletes all year, so it’s never boring,” said Grant.

Grant took three years of business at UPEI before switching over to Journalism and Communications last fall. 

“The availability of instructors here at the college is incredible. The fact that they know my goals and structured my experience around those goals is very beneficial. It’s not something you see happening anywhere else,” said Grant. 

“This program is great, you come in knowing nothing and you leave fully equipped to work in the field,” said Justin. 

Justin plans to continue with the degree pathway between Holland College and UPEI in the fall. Grant will be finishing up his final year at the college. 

They plan to continue the podcast over the summer and keep practising their skills. 

“If it continues to grow and be a success that’s amazing, but for us, it is about learning and building our skills for our résumés and getting the experience,” said Justin. 

Both hope to work in sports journalism in the future, so the podcast is a great first project for them to be working on. 

You can find the Waterboyz Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, along with a video version on YouTube. A new episode drops every Wednesday afternoon.

You can also find them on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook!

For more information about the Journalism & Communications program visit our program page.