Falling in love with sociology and social justice studies came as something of a a surprise to social sciences grad Qwisun Yoon-Potkins, who moved from East Vancouver to pursue her post-secondary education at UVic. She graduates this month with an honours BA in sociology and a diploma in social justice studies.
In her past four and a half years, UVic biology undergraduate student Yamila Franco has developed an impressive list of accomplishments: achieving fluency in French, completing four co-op terms and an Honours project, learning how to code, blogging for MyUVic Life, pursuing her passion in photography and becoming a board member with the BC Chapter of the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research.
Law school can be stressful. And hard. Add to that becoming a new father during your second year and you've got a big challenge on your hands. Will McClary took on that challenge, and because of the support he received at UVic Law, he took it in stride. Then he added an executive role on the board of the Law Student Society (LSS).
Nuha Omer Elgindi has always believed that commerce could be about more than just making a profit. Born in Sudan and raised in Tunisia and the UK, Elgindi says her early environment played a key part in making sustainability one of her earliest, deepest values.
Growing up on a small island three hours north of Victoria, the outdoors served as Iona Lister's classroom. Home-schooled for the most part until high school, Lister spent her days reading, writing and making music while immersed in nature. The English master's student, who graduates this June, has since taken to travelling, trekking across Europe and South America, and learning several languages, including Spanish and French.
When Tia Sojonky arrived at UVic from her hometown of Regina, Saskatchewan to study engineering, she realized she'd underestimated how much hard work it was going to be. Sojonky, who's graduating in June with an honor’s degree in biomedical engineering, says she did take advantage of the many resources available for assistance but what made the biggest difference for her was doing a co-op work term in Stephanie Willerth’s biomedical engineering lab.
There’s nothing quite like looking across the ocean and feeling the fresh salty air filing your lungs as you ride your bike along Dallas Road. And Carson Sage, who graduates with a MA in Kinesiology this month, has been offering senior citizens in Victoria and beyond the opportunity to reconnect with nature through free bike rides, via the Cycling Without Age program.
Margaret Fireman understands that language upholds her culture. Without language, oral traditions and wisdom passed down from her Cree ancestors would be lost. Language, she says, is closely tied to the land. And so when Fireman, a residential school survivor and then-manager of Chisasibi Heritage and Cultural Centre in northeastern Quebec, was searching for a program to bolster the preservation of her community's language of James Bay Cree, she chose carefully.
Sabrina Curtis graduates this spring with an online Graduate Diploma in Evaluation through the School of Public Administration. As the director of planning and evaluation for the Columbia Basin Trust. Curtis is applying her learning directly to her complex work of measuring the performance of many diverse community programs and strategic initiatives supported by the trust.
The journey towards post-secondary education began for Carolyn Belleau when she had to re-invent herself after losing her fashion design business in last decade's recession. To move forward in a new direction Belleau had to carefully assess her skills and aptitude. She graduates this month with a bachelor in political science.
A Victoria leader in community and social development, a lawyer who fights on behalf of the disadvantaged, a diplomat who pioneered modern education in Africa, an international leader in early childhood education and a Holocaust survivor dedicated to educating others about hate and racism will all receive UVic’s highest academic honour.
Four members of the Convocation have been elected to the Senate of the University of Victoria.
Members of the University of Victoria Convocation are invited to vote in the election of Convocation Senators.
Fourteen candidates have been nominated to stand for election to fill four Convocation Senator positions. Candidate bios are now available.
Kristina Frolova graduates this November with a degree in civil engineering, the same degree as her parents, uncles, aunts and grandmother. "Civil engineering must be in my genes," says the international student who came to Canada from Russia when she was 18. "I think it's embedded in me in some way."
Hundreds of UVic students and their families will gather on campus this month to celebrate reaching an academic milestone. A total of 1,396 degrees, certificates and diplomas will be conferred.
