Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Jerry Tomberlin and Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning) David Hornsby presented eight undergraduate Carleton students with Provost Scholar Awards on Friday, May 1.
Although it was not possible to hold an in-person event due to the current public health crisis, Carleton hosted an online event via videoconference to virtually recognize the accomplishments of the Provost Scholars.
Carleton faculty, staff and senior administration joined Provost Scholar Award recipients and their guests in a virtual award ceremony on Friday, May 1.
Funded by the Office of the Provost and Vice-President (Academic) and administered by Teaching and Learning Services, the Provost Scholar Award is valued at $1,000 and is given to undergraduate students who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in research, community engagement, immersive learning and/or international activities.
The Peter J. Ricketts Outstanding Provost Scholar Award was established last year and is given to an outstanding recipient of the Provost Scholar Award. The award is named for Peter J. Ricketts, who served as the Provost and Vice-President (Academic) at Carleton for eight years. This year’s award, worth an additional $1,700, was presented to Jordan Gray.
Congratulations to the recipients of the 2020 Provost Scholar Awards:
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Samphe Ballamingie
Samphe is a sociology student with a minor in environmental studies. She is described as an outstanding student with incredible initiative, skill and a talent for explaining and analyzing complex concepts through storytelling. Last summer, she worked on a research study that focused on how public libraries foster community through a FASS Undergraduate Research Internship. As part of this research, she interviewed head librarians across Scandinavia and generated both scholarly and lay outputs. She is also an accomplished filmmaker. Last year, she won a prestigious jury award at the YouTube Creators for Change and United Nations Climate Change Mobile Film Festival in Paris for her short film that documented youth climate protests in October 2019. She has also volunteered at the Womxn’s Centre, facilitated the Enriched Support Program for an introductory sociology course and worked at the Digi60 Filmmakers Festival where she created a podcast series interviewing women in the film industry.
Calla Tait
Calla is a child studies student with a minor in psychology. Calla is described as a hardworking, dedicated student who has great potential to continue contributing to knowledge building and research. Calla has worked as an undergraduate research assistant for a SSHRC funded project about how children understand and aesthetically represent LGBTQ+ family. Calla is a leader in the Childhood and Youth Studies program, a FASS Student Ambassador and has been involved with the Carleton group Voices Against Violence for the last four years to raise funds for the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre. Calla also volunteers at the Sophia House and works with young refugees who are new to Canada. To build on their knowledge of refugees, Calla helped create a course outline for an independent study course on the rights and lived experiences of child refugees in Canada.
Faculty of Engineering and Design
Jonique Gardien
Jonique is an architectural conservation and sustainability engineering student who is passionate about sustainable housing in First Nations Communities. She took on a leadership role in engaging with Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek – Gull Bay First Nation to provide sustainable and affordable housing solutions as part of a fourth-year engineering capstone project. Her undergraduate research work relates to fire safety in affordable housing solutions and has been supported by I-CUREUS. She has taken on various leadership roles in Engineers without Borders and internship work in building skills and business acumen of individuals in Uganda. She has spoken at various invited speaker events, including a keynote presentation at the Carleton International Development Symposium. Jonique has been featured by the CBC’s All in a Day show as a role model for women in engineering.
Mary-Johanna Weir Weiss
Mary-Johanna is a biomedical and mechanical engineering student and is described as a dependable, diligent and independent researcher. She worked in Prof. Oren Patel’s lab as an NSERC USRA student where she improved the calibration of the lab’s CT scanner to an impressive degree. She worked at CCM Hockey on a Mitacs internship where her research focused on the relationship between helmet fit and impact mitigation. She developed new evaluation techniques and initiated advances that will lead to safer helmets and hopefully reduce concussion incidence among athletes. Mary-Johanna is the vice president of global engineering for the Carleton chapter of Engineers without Borders, where she led efforts to promote sustainable development and global citizenship to students through meetings with faculty and local politicians. She is also the treasurer for the Rotaract Club at Carleton and has volunteered at the Cancer Centre in the Ottawa Hospital.
Faculty of Public Affairs
Jordan Gray
Jordan is a global and international studies student with a minor in Indigenous studies. Last year, Jordan presented the results of an original research project at the University of Oldenburg in Germany and was the first Carleton student to attend the World Congress on Undergraduate Research. He was awarded the Lincoln M. Alexander award for the elimination of racial discrimination, at which time Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell described Jordan as someone who “demonstrated commitment, creativity, and dedication to social justice.” Jordan has participated in Alternative Spring Break in Ecuador, traveled to the Netherlands as part of a course where he engaged with the principles of international humanitarian law, and engaged in transnational research with students from the Free University of Berlin. He has participated in the Carleton University Research Opportunity Program on a project that contributed a high-impact solution to ongoing misconceptualizations on traditional governance systems between the Mi’kmaq Nation and the Government of Canada. He has also worked with Carleton’s Centre for Indigenous Research, Culture, Language and Education on an Indigenous language revitalization project, which gave him the opportunity to deliver remarks before the President of the United Nations General Assembly at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues based on his research.
Shaked Karabelnicoff
Shaked is a journalism student with a minor in religion who is described as an exemplary junior scholar with a tremendous work ethic and commitment to community building. She is an executive of Carleton’s Journalism Society, where she helps foster and grow the journalism student community, and she is the President of Israel on Campus, where she coordinates and plans events relating to Jewish and Israeli life, culture and religion. Last summer, she interned at the Jerusalem Post, a role that required a deep cultural and religious understanding of Israel, and exemplary journalistic skills. This term, Shaked took a directed study course where she was responsible for researching, collecting and analyzing data through structured interviews and a media literature report. She has participated in the Defining Future Leader’s program, interned at the Embassy of Israel in the Public Diplomacy department and participated in I-CUREUS.
Faculty of Science
Khadija Baig
Khadija is a computer science student with a minor in psychology who has extensive research experience and was selected to represent Carleton at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research in Montana in March. She completed a research project that explored the effect of media on technical users’ understanding of security. She has experience with qualitative and quantitative data analysis, conducting user study sessions, designing studies and applying for Research Ethics Board clearance, and writing research results for publication. Khadija has taken opportunities to act as a role model to younger students and was a mentor in the Go Code Girl Initiative by Virtual Ventures to teach young girls about programming. She has also helped organize SHAD workshops, helped with fundraising for the Canadian Cancer Society and worked for Leave the Pack Behind’s smoking cessation wellness program.
Duncan Spencer
Duncan is a neuroscience and mental health student with a minor in psychology who is described as a patient, innovative problem solver with a genuine curiosity for science research. He is a two-time NSERC USRA and I-CUREUS recipient who has an impressive research background and has successfully presented his research at national and international conferences. He implemented a new technique that laid the groundwork for a new research strategy and presented this data at the Young Researcher’s Conference, where his abstract was peer-reviewed and selected for publication. Duncan was recruited as a Teaching Assistant for the inaugural neuroscience laboratory class this term. He has also volunteered for the Let’s Talk Science and Virtual Ventures events and was a founding organizer of the Brain Freeze fundraiser that raised over $3,000 for the Distress Centre of Ottawa and Region.