2020 Service Excellence Award Recipients

Mike Antunes, our senior electronics technologist has always made a significant difference for all the students taking the physics advanced lab courses, but this past year highlights his great efforts and involvement to the success of the labs. 

Nadiya Ismaeva is extremely organized and professional, which is essential when coordinating a large team at multiple universities in Canada as well as partners in more than five countries. She has an incredible ability to take the big dreams and ideas of our team and make them into concrete and achievable plans, working within various financial and other systems to make things happen.

Without Kwesi Loney’s dedication and organization, EIC would not have had the opportunity to have the critical conversations about human rights and inclusion with the athletes that were so important to their learning and well-being. Each and every varsity athlete benefitted from Kwesi’s community commitment this fall, and the impact that will have on them is inestimable. Because of Kwesi’s work, and his professional, caring, and responsive attitude, Carleton’s community, well beyond the athletics community, is a kinder, more inclusive place.

A ‘Hidden Hero’. Scott Mullan’s face is rarely seen outside of an IT project room, and students will never meet him, but the quality of service he provides has shaped the experiences of faculty, staff and students in the most positive ways.

I cannot count the times a younger student has come to me with questions about course selection, program elements, their audit, co-op, etc., and I have sent them to Tanya Schwartz, beyond confident that they are in the very best of hands and that their questions will be answered fully, and that they are now aware of the invaluable service that Tanya provides. It is not an exaggeration to say that she is beloved by the students and is in large part why the History Department at Carleton is such a welcoming community.

Kristie Tousignant has assisted us in reviewing our policies and procedures, obtaining hard to get protective equipment for our staff, and working through our training needs so that our staff can do their job with the confidence to know what they need to do. She has also taken the time to work with us as we addressed unique challenges that COVID has presented, as it relates to our calls for service.

If you are a graduate student, you definitely know Ria Akaiwa. She is always there for you when you need help or advice Ria is one that stands out; I could feel her commitment behind the scenes as I see the outcome as a student. Ria’s emails and communication skills helped me settle down despite all the uncertainties I was facing on a personal level.  

These stakeholders were faced with the wicked problem of attempting to create community and sense of belonging in a virtual landscape. 
 
This cross functional team saw an opportunity to transform Student Life in two ways – provide meaningful opportunities for students to connect in virtual spaces and coordinate the delivery of programming to students through one channel creating greater synergy and collaboration for those that plan events and activities for students. 
 
This was very rare as often our student groups and administrative departments would be offering programs or activities within their mandate, but this really saw campus groups and administrative units work together under the framework of CUx with goals to create a community for Carleton students, to enhance their student experience.

 Congregate living and dining spaces are subject to ever-updated Ottawa Public Health & Provincial health guidelines. It is not easy to outfit buildings with proper signage and hand sanitizer in a moment’s notice. But with every change & OPH site visit, the strong COVID processes that have been developed and put in place by the Housing and Residence Life Team continue to be a model for all on campus operations. 
 
With all the challenges that this year has brought the Housing and Residence Life Team continues to provide exceptional service to students and are a role model for us all. They are our cruise ship. A destination on our campus providing meaningful experiences with safety as their first priority 24hr a day 7 days a week.  

 I could use a great many superlatives to describe the Teaching and Learning Services team and their achievements.  Overnight they helped shift the university and its 30,000 students into online and remote teaching. They then supported over 87,000 successful individual winter final exam sessions and prepared instructors to teach fully online.

 

 Teaching an Learning Services team members did amazing things under extraordinary circumstances and their impact has been astonishing.