Mackenzie Curtis is a passionate, valued member of our grants assessor team whose experience in community broadcasting started at SYN FM and Melbourne’s Channel 31, where she was a producer on ‘1700’. From there, she moved on to Training Manager at RMITV where she eventually became General Manager from 2020 – 2021.
Spending much of her youth in ballet classes and school plays, Mackenzie has a deep love for performing, acting and media. After attempting different courses after high school, she settled on a Bachelor of Communication (Media) where she was first introduced to community broadcasting in her first year of her degree. Mackenzie explains, “I found SYN and immediately got involved with ‘1700’ which led me to RMITV Student Community Television where I really found my groove”.
At RMITV, Mackenzie managed the running of the organisation and was involved with a number of its productions including ‘In Pit Lane’, ‘Campus Cupid’ and ‘Offbeat’. For Mackenzie, community broadcasting is important because it provides “platforms for the stories and voices of minority communities to be heard and celebrated” as well as valuable opportunities for training and development of young professionals.
Since graduating from University, Mackenzie has taken a step back from management at RMITV to focus on other passions, but continues to stay in touch with RMITV.
She explains, “I signed up to be a CBF assessor because I was keen to utilise my skills and knowledge of community broadcasting in a new way. Community media is impossible without grants like those that CBF provides and I was interested in getting involved with the grant approval process.”