In his four years at St. Thomas, Jonathan Munn has become a fixture on campus and across Fredericton. Whether you’re tuning in to the radio every morning, checking out Humans of Fredericton on Facebook, or just going to the STUSU desk, chances are you’ll come across Jonathan Munn.
“My schedule seems very tight,” says Jonathan. “And it is!”
The 21-year old journalism and communications student is constantly on the go. When sleep seems sacred to most students, Jonathan rises at 4:30 AM every morning to host The Wake UP! Show on UP 93.1. However, he says he doesn’t mind the early mornings.
“It helps me wake up in the morning,” he says. “Because it’s madatory!”
Though he’s spent three years in the radio industry, he came into it almost by accident. While hosting a beauty pageant in his grade 12 year, his voice caught the attention of the judges. He soon found out that the judges were radio announcers from Fredericton.
He was offered a job as a radio promoter near Fredericton, and later moved up to his current position as host and morning news anchor.
In addition to his radio career and life as a full-time student, Jonathan also sits as the communications coordinator for the St. Thomas University Students’ Union (STUSU), and runs his own photography business. This summer, he started the Facebook page Humans of Fredericton, inspired by the massively popular Humans of New York.
“I had thought about doing [Humans of Fredericton] before, but I had never acted on it,” he says. “It just came out of nowhere and just bloomed.”
Even as classes begin for the year, Jonathan says he still plans to keep up with the page, even if it means posting a little less frequently. He says the usual two posts per day will likely be scaled back to only one.
To date, Humans of Fredericton has over 10,500 Facebook likes. Jonathan says he’s been blown away by the positive response to the page.
“It was more than I had expected,” he says. “I knew it would be popular, but I didn’t expect it to be this popular.”
As communications coordinator, Jonathan manages all of STUSU’s social media accounts, and helps plan events with the Union. Finally, as a contract photographer, he photographs anything and everything, “except weddings.”
For a guy who wears so many hats, it’s amazing that he finds room for everything in such a busy schedule. He says that some days he’ll find himself having to go from work to school to a STUSU or radio event, and still have time to work on class assignments. It might not be easy, but Jonathan says he tries his hardest to manage his time well.
“Newcap Radio, the company I work for, [has] been absoutely incredible,” he says. “They understand that school is a priority in my life, and they’ll help me as much as they can.”
Now that he’s in his final year at STU, Jonathan’s looking to the future, and what his life might hold after he graduates in May. Jonathan says he definitely wants to further his already-growing career.
“Right now, I could see me going farther in radio, I could see me going farther in television, or maybe even in communications.”