Centre for Campus Life and Athletics hosts inaugural ceremony
By Naomi Ambrose, Contributor
On Tuesday April 3, the Centre for Campus Life and Athletics hosted the inaugural Student Co-Curricular Engagement Awards to celebrate and honour students who have made outstanding contributions to Douglas College or the greater community through leadership, volunteering, or club involvement.
The awards ceremony, which was held at the Executive Plaza Hotel in Coquitlam, had students and staff seated at tables named after words such as lead, inspire, learn and share—words that are often associated with leadership and volunteerism.
It was this sense of inspiration that propelled Sanaah Dodhia, a second-year Sports Science student to co-organize the awards. “In order to encourage and inspire more students and appreciate the ones that have done so much, we held the awards.”
Blaine Jensen, Douglas College Vice President of Educational Services echoed similar sentiments. “I was thrilled with the Student Engagement Awards Night. It was the culmination of years of hard work by many people who have created a college that promotes student involvement, supports students in their academic and personal goals and rewards students for the outstanding work that they do.”
Jensen further explained that “in January 2005, Douglas College set a goal to create a welcoming, engaging environment where the student experience and learning is paramount. The Student Engagement Awards demonstrated that we are well down the road on this lifelong pathway.”
The theme for the Awards was “the ripple effect”—a term coined by classroom management theorist Jacob Kounin. He used this term to describe people who have thrown pebbles and created a ripple of changes. For the Student Engagement Awards, the ripple effect was an event celebrating the achievement and contributions of our campus and community student leaders, who have in their way created lasting ripples of change.
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College Wide Awards
Student Leader of the Year: Nicole Leyland
Campus Engagement: Catherine Wong
Community Builder: Lacy Morin-Desjarlais
Club Excellence: Bryan Aquino
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Department Specific Awards
Office for New Students: Roisin Connolly, Sai Wong, and Mikko SanRamon
International Students: Alex Li and Ly Huong Vu
Douglife Award: Bill Wu and Martha Espinoza
Club of the Year: Hip Hop Dance Club
