That’s the Spirit!
Five KPU Students win Inaugural Eagle Spirit Awards for contributions to KPU Spirit or Pride
L-R: Josh Mitchell, Zerlinda Chau (award recipient), Fatima Zaidi(award recipient), Ron Maggiore, Marti Algers (not pictured) Nathan Printis, Kevin Thompson, Jason O’Connor (recipients)
This fall, KPU’s Department of Student Life and Development launched a new student award, given out monthly to students that contribute to KPU spirit or pride in any forum . The inaugural Eagle Spirit Awards will go to five students this October, Zerlinda Chau (Psychology), Nathan Printis (Welding), Kevin O’Connor (Hort), Jason Thompson (Hort) and Fatima Zaidi (Criminology).
One winner, Fatima Zaidi, was nominated by two faculty members, Marti Algers and Dave Lyons. According to Dave Lyons, “Over the past year I have seen Fatima demonstrate the type of exceptional leadership and service that I believe the Eagle Spirit Awards are intended to recognize.”
Fatima came up with the idea of developing a workshop to provide supplementary assistance to students who wish to improve their writing. While I was supportive of her idea, I did not have time myself to organize it and so I left the matter entirely in Fatima’s hands. On her own initiative, she made contact with faculty members in a variety of disciplines and together they organized and delivered a workshop that began in the Fall 2012 semester that provided students with ideas for improving their written assignment work. The success of this initiative prompted Fatima to transform the single workshop into a series which ran throughout the Spring 2013 semester. During my 10 years of teaching at Kwantlen, I have observed very few students demonstrate the level of leadership, initiative, and service to the student body that Fatima has shown and I would highly recommend her for an award on this basis.”
“KPU is such a diverse community that is rich in students that express their talents and gifts in many ways.” noted Theresa Voorsluys, Coordinator , Student Life and Recreation, “We hope that the award will serve as a way to showcase some of these students’ stories and highlight students who do us proud whether through achievement, creativity, volunteerism and/or leadership. Read all of the October Eagle Spirit Awardees online at kpu.ca/eagle spirit.
Nathan Printis, another October winner, won a silver medal at the Skills Canada Competition this June 2013. He was tested in his skills area, welding, against his peers across the nation in a number of interactive Olympic-style, hands-on activities.
The Eagle Spirit Award will be given out every month to a current student. Any staff, student, or faculty member can nominate a student who they think makes us all a little prouder to be at KPU. The deadline for nomination for November’s Eagle Spirit is Nov 5th.
Nominations can be submitted at kpu.ca/eaglespirit