Georgian celebrates inspiring changemakers at Awards of Distinction
May 3, 2023
The college’s Board of Governors recognized an exceptional group of employees, alumni and community partners during the annual Awards of Distinction on May 2. The awards are considered the college’s highest honour and recognize those who exemplify excellence.
The Board of Governors extends heartfelt congratulations and gratitude to each of this year’s recipients for all they’ve achieved in support of the college, our students and the communities we serve. Through various initiatives and projects, they’ve made significant enhancements to Georgian’s teaching, learning and service experience and been outstanding ambassadors. The board is both impressed and inspired by their level of creativity, commitment and compassion.
– Richard C. Gauthier, Chair, Georgian College Board of Governors
Community Partner Award
Georgian recognized The Joyce Family Foundation with a Community Partner Award. The college and the foundation are united in shared values around transforming the student experience, improving access to education, and removing financial barriers for students.
In 2022, the foundation established a $1.5-million endowment in the Health-care Heroes Closer to Home campaign to support bursaries for Honours Bachelor of Science – Nursing students at Georgian. The college welcomed the first cohort of nursing degree students to the Barrie and Owen Sound campuses in September.
The Joyce Family Foundation’s generous investment will ensure financial hardship doesn’t prevent aspiring nurses from pursuing a degree and help Georgian continue to address the critical talent gap and shortage of nurses that’s affecting health-care delivery and wellness in our campus communities.
Distinguished Alumni Award
Two Georgian graduates received Distinguished Alumni Awards – one granted posthumously.
Constable Morgan Russell, alumnus of Georgian’s Law and Security program (class of 1988), gave his life serving the community on Oct. 11, 2022. He was a 33-year veteran of the South Simcoe Police Service who chose to stay on the frontline past retirement, dedicated to creating lasting community relationships to ensure better outcomes and interactions with police.
Cst. Russell served as founding member of the Emergency Response Unit, where he worked for 22 years. He was also a coach officer, sharing his wisdom and experience with new hires; trained crisis negotiator who placed high value on human life and helped to ensure the best possible outcomes; and a member of the recruitment team – conducting interviews and presenting to local colleges, including Georgian.
Constable Russell represented the best of humanity, demonstrating courage and grace in the face of dangerous situations, connecting personally with everyone he met along the way, listening deeply to others, and constantly looking for ways to improve. He left an inspiring legacy with considerable influence on Georgian students and alumni who he warmly encouraged and generously shared his experiences with.
– Kevin Weaver, Georgian’s President and CEO
His wife Marissa and two daughters Maggie and Madeline accepted the award on his behalf.
The second recipient was Kelly Watson, graduate of the Business Administration program (class of 2012), and current Director of Global Engagement at Georgian. Over the last two years, Kelly’s passion and drive contributed to the successful implementation of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Safe Isolation Project in Simcoe County.
She partnered with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit to secure $753,000 in grant funding to help vulnerable students and community members who faced a high-risk contact or positive test result from COVID-19 and didn’t have a safe place to quarantine. Through immense collaborative effort, the program proactively addressed a service gap and supported the safe isolation of 81 students and 77 community members.
Employee Entrepreneurial Award
Entrepreneurial thinking is a skill we instill in our students and Georgian employees model it every day. This year’s recipient of the Employee Entrepreneurial Award is Susan Hosein, Manager, Quality Assurance and Special Projects, Office of the Registrar. Susan leads and supports several digital innovation projects, leveraging her external network of colleagues and software vendors to source best practices and solutions.
Among these projects, she spearheaded an initiative to implement digital workflows to enable students, academic co-ordinators and Office of the Registrar employees to complete academic student processes – such as grade changes, program and semester changes – online. This is resulting in a much quicker and more transparent service experience.
Susan also championed the MyCreds project, making Georgian an early adopter of this digital records service. MyCreds is an online platform where students and alumni can safely access their Georgian academic transcripts and postsecondary credentials any time, anywhere.
Team Award
Two groups of employees were recognized with Team Awards that support the college’s strategic priorities. The first is the Flourishing 5 Pack team. With representation from across our seven campuses, the team developed a set of five interconnected micro-certificates that Georgian students can take for free to develop their skills and the mindset needed to succeed academically and personally.
The micro-certificates include:
- Flourish@GC
- Mental Health and Well-being
- Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
- Changemaking
- Leadership
To earn each micro-certificate, students complete three or four badges related to specific skills or competencies such as empathy or mental health literacy.
The second recipient is the Move 2 Ultra team, which is ensuring Georgian continues to successfully transition from Blackboard Learn to Blackboard Ultra. Blackboard is an essential tool for course delivery and an important extension of the learning environment. Students told us they wanted a more consistent, accessible, equitable and mobile-friendly experience – one that Blackboard Ultra is ultimately helping us to deliver.
The Move 2 Ultra team has supported thousands of course developments, hundreds of faculty through one on one and scheduled sessions, and offered countless hours of training throughout the transition. They also thoughtfully designed and curated resources for faculty synchronously and asynchronously – ensuring equitable and easy access to learning and development material.
Award of Excellence
Three employees received Awards of Excellence.
Academic
In March 2021, the Ontario government announced an initiative to train up to 8,200 new personal support workers for high demand jobs in the health and long-term care sectors. Georgian rose to the challenge, under the leadership of Jennifer Laws, Professor of Health, Wellness and Sciences, offering two cohorts of the Personal Support Worker – Accelerated program across six of our campuses.
In the spring of 2022, the Ontario Government announced a second intake and we ran the program again at four campuses. Over two years, more than 180 students graduated from the program at Georgian. Upon completing clinical placements, they were hired by our agency partners to provide care during a critical time.
To meet current needs in the sector, Jennifer also initiated a part-time offering of the Personal Support Worker program for fall 2023 so students have the increased flexibility to balance their studies with other commitments and responsibilities.
Support staff
Angela Foster, Community Studies Placement Officer, Human Services and Community Safety, is a recognized student advocate, environmental champion, and driving force of engagement and collaboration at the Orillia Campus. Her role is to facilitate field placements and internships for students in our human services programs, which became increasingly difficult during the pandemic and remains so – with many community partners feeling overwhelmed, understaffed and lacking capacity for mentorship.
Angela has worked tirelessly to strengthen relationships with our partners, help students secure placements, and create remote or alternative experiences in collaboration with others to ensure students meet learning outcomes.
Administration
Among many achievements, Karen Hirshfeld, Associate Dean of Health, Wellness and Sciences, has led her teams to launch new market-driven programs – all welcomed and supported by our community partners.
She delivered on a new staffing model for two oral health programs and was instrumental in a successful proposal to renovate the Pharmacy Technician program hospital aseptic labs, which has significantly increased the amount and quality of experiential learning for students in the program.
Karen also worked with the Denturism program to budget for the addition of open lab time to help students succeed. During her tenure as associate dean, this program’s attrition rate has decreased by more than 50 per cent.
