General News

OTTAWA – (March 2, 2022) – Syntax Strategic, a marketing, public affairs, and government relations firm, has announced a five-year $50,000 award in partnership with Algonquin College. The goal of this award is to create a pipeline of talent from programs such as communications, marketing, and design and cast the broadest net possible with preference going to Black, Indigenous, (and) People of Colour (BIPOC) students to encourage more diversity in the public relations field. The Syntax Strategic Award will be awarded annually to two students in their final year of studies. Each student will receive $5,000 plus a paid summer internship opportunity.

This new award comes in the wake of companies publicly struggling to find talent and diverse candidates due to the mass exodus of people from the workforce due to COVID-19. CEO and founder of Syntax Strategic Jennifer Stewart decided it was time for a fresh approach to finding new talent and ideas: “If we want diversity in agencies, we need to invest in it. We can no longer sit back and hope that the right candidate with the right skills and background falls into our laps. We are building the future workforce we need, and we hope other businesses do the same.”

Algonquin College has more than 50 years of experience educating, training, upskilling and reskilling students and workers for the careers of today and tomorrow. The College works with employers to understand their staffing needs, challenges, and timelines – and prepare workers with the right skills at the right time.

“I want to thank Syntax Strategic for investing in our students and recognizing that Algonquin College is a pipeline for every business that needs workers,” said Algonquin College President and CEO Claude Brulé. “We are pleased to partner with a company that is building its workforce on a foundation of diversity, something we also highly value at Algonquin College.”

Executive Vice-President of Syntax Strategic Jennifer Madigan also weighed in on the challenges today’s recent grads are facing, saying, “It’s time businesses invest in the skills they need, from education to on-the-job training. We need to build the workforce we want to employ and remove barriers to let in candidates who have otherwise been overlooked, under resourced, and generally disadvantaged in finding employment.”

Stewart has seen first-hand the proven practical and hands-on technical skills Algonquin College students and graduates bring to the table. Syntax Strategic has presented to many students over the years, provided mentorship, and hired numerous graduates from the college’s professional programs. Stewart said that with these long-term proof points, Algonquin College was an obvious choice for the exclusive award.

Recipients of the Syntax Strategic Award will be chosen by an award committee. Applicants must submit:

• A one-page essay on how they will apply the skills they developed in their program in the workforce, their career goals, and the steps they will take to achieve them.
• A portfolio of their work (2 samples)
• Two references: a teacher and one other (a personal reference, peer, employer, or volunteer lead)

Full award details are available Media and Design – Financial Aid & Student Awards (algonquincollege.com).

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For more information:

Bruce Hickey

Acting Communications Manager, Algonquin College

hickeyb@algonquincollege.com

613-513-9935

Jennifer Madigan

Executive Vice-President of Syntax Strategic

jmadigan@syntaxstrategic.ca

613-884-0209

About Algonquin College

The mission of Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology is to transform hopes and dreams into lifelong success. Algonquin College, an Ontario public sector community college, does this by offering hands-on, digitally connected, experiential learning in more than 185 programs. Based in the Ottawa Valley, Algonquin College is the largest polytechnic institute in Eastern Ontario.

About Syntax Strategic

Founded in 2010 by President and CEO Jennifer Stewart, Syntax is a full-service firm specializing in media relations, strategic communications, marketing, design, policy and public affairs. Syntax has worked with a broad range of clients, including several national and international clients in government, academia, non-profit, and the private sector covering topics that span health sciences, health advocacy, social impact, development, cleantech, governance and more.

Algonquin College is pleased to announce the establishment of a student broadcasting award in honour of alumnus and Emmy Award winner Blair H. Tetreault, who passed away earlier this year.

The Blair H. Tetreault Memorial Award, made possible by a $109,000 endowed gift from his family, will provide an annual award of approximately $4,000 to a second-year student in the Broadcasting-Television Program.

Blair graduated in 1981 from the Broadcasting-Radio and Television program, following which he launched a prominent career spanning 40 years. Early in his career, he worked as an editor for news and public affairs programs at Ottawa CTV before transitioning to roles in live sports broadcasting. Among his many notable successes, Blair covered the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary for CTV, the men’s hockey tournaments at the 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics for CBS, and later worked in various broadcasting roles on NHL hockey games and on major soccer tournaments across North America. He and his crew won Emmy Awards for their coverage of the 1994 Winter Olympics coverage and the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final in 2015.

Following Blair’s passing in June, his family decided to honour his memory with an award for students following in his footsteps in Algonquin’s Broadcasting-Television program. “We wanted to give back because the College afforded Blair the opportunity to have such a wonderful career,” said his brother, David Tetreault.

Each year, the Blair H. Tetreault Memorial Award will honour a second-year student who earned a minimum 3.6 GPA in the first year of the program, and who contributed meaningfully to a sense of collegiality among fellow students, professors, and others involved in the program.

“We stipulated those criteria because Blair was that kind of person,” said Blair’s wife, Louise Tetreault. “Not only was he strong technically, he shared a great deal of warmth and collegiality with his crew and made a point of mentoring people just getting started in their career. He was very motivated to help them with the technical aspects of the job and to introduce them to contacts within the business.”

Consequently, Blair earned a reputation among young colleagues as their “broadcasting dad.” This reputation literally extends to his son, Scott, who was inspired and supported by his father to pursue a career in broadcasting after he graduated from Algonquin College’s Broadcasting – Television program in 2009.

According to Claude Brulé, President and CEO of Algonquin College, “The Tetreault family has demonstrated tremendous generosity by investing such a substantial endowed gift to support the hopes and dreams of our learners. The award is a wonderful example of Algonquin College’s values of integrity, caring, learning, and respect.”

“We are honoured that the Tetreault family chose to support Algonquin students in Blair’s memory,” said Mark Savenkoff, Algonquin College’s Vice President, Advancement. “The Tetreault family’s generosity extends beyond our students to the people they will one day work with by promoting a valuable ethic of helping others to succeed.”

Learn more about supporting the Blair H. Tetreault Memorial Award.

On August 19, the Advancement Division welcomed representatives from six Ontario colleges to a virtual one-day conference entitled “The Ship and The Canoe: Navigating Advancement Through a Pandemic.”

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Advancement teams needed to adjust how they engaged alumni and donors, and managed communications. Advancement offices are guided by internal college policies and directives outlined by Canada Revenue Agency (i.e. The Ship) when securing alumni and donor support. At the same time, Advancement officers need to be responsive to the changing needs of communities and industries, and the interests of donors (i.e. The Canoe).

Navigating The Ship and The Canoe has been put to the ultimate test during the pandemic. The conference focused on the importance of Advancement staff working in new ways to support student needs and academic priorities. “Algonquin College was proud to host fundraising, alumni and advancement services professionals from across the province. Presenters shared key learnings and best practices. They facilitated meaningful conversations with their peers,” says Mark Savenkoff, Vice President, Advancement.

The conference addressed the need to work together in a mindful way through the spirit of Indigenization and respond to calls to action outlined in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report. The event also focused on how teams in a community college environment can work with one another to maximize value and effectiveness. Content was based on key findings of the publication CASE-CCAE Support of Education Survey: Canada Insight on Charitable Giving to Canadian Education (2019). A grant was received from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Venture Capital Fund to host the conference.

Conference presenters included: Joanne Souaid, Associate Director, Advancement Services; Ian Lewer, Director, Philanthropy; Barry Seller, Manager, Alumni Engagement; and Mark Savenkoff, Vice President, Advancement. Ron McLester, Vice President, Truth, Reconciliation and Indigenization, provided an opening address and Andre O’Bonsawin, Director of Indigenous Initiatives, closed the conference.

Dr. Misbah Islam and Dr. Nigar Fatima Islam have established the Islam’s Health Care Bursary with an endowed gift to Algonquin College.

The annual bursary will be awarded to a second-year student in the School of Health and Community Studies who is enrolled in Diagnostic Medical Sonography, Practical Nursing, or Medical Radiation Technology. Preference will be given to students who self-identify as Muslim or Indigenous, with the award then being extended to other students demonstrating financial need.

According to Mark Savenkoff, Vice President, Advancement, “Dr. Misbah Islam and Dr. Nigar Fatima Islam’s generosity is a great example of how members of the community are rallying behind our students — especially now as they emerge from a particularly challenging period.”

By creating the bursary, the Islams wanted to encourage young people in their community to obtain hands-on professional skills. According to their sons, both radiologists, nurses and medical technicians are not well represented among Muslim Canadians.

The Islams’ positive experience as immigrants motivated them to give back to the Ottawa community. “We are from Pakistan and have been here for 40 years. My wife and I, and our two sons, were given so much by this country,” says Misbah. “Ottawa provided us with a healthy, happy, friendly environment in which to raise our family. So our objective with this bursary is paying back by helping others.”

The Islams’ spirit of philanthropy goes back decades. In 1999 Nigar sponsored a family of six from Kosovo. In the early 2000s, she wanted to help the Iraqi women and children during the Iraqi war. As Nigar recounts, she first needed to come up with a way to raise the necessary funds: “Pakistani clothes are very well made. They are elegant and have colorful handiwork. In Canada, they are worn only occasionally at festivities. They often end up in storage and unused. I thought, ‘Why not collect them through my network and sell them for charity by organizing a bazaar?’” The event raised $7,000.

Encouraged by the bazaar’s success, Nigar and other volunteers organized a second event. This time, sales generated nearly $15,000, which Human Concern International matched. “After that,” says Nigar, “I became a veteran of bazaars. We held them for floods in India, and earthquakes in Haiti and Pakistan.” She has continued to use her fund-raising skills to collect $54,000 to sponsor two refugee families from Syria that are now well settled.

The Islam’s learned about Algonquin College through Nigar’s involvement with the Ottawa Muslim Women’s Organization (OMWO), which is committed to building bridges with people of all faiths. The OMWO established two bursaries at Algonquin College. “I was the OMWO’s treasurer and I saw the College was doing a good job helping students with these bursaries,” says Nigar. “Misbah and I realized the amount needed to set up a bursary was within our financial means. So that’s how our own bursary came about.”

The Islams’ established the bursary in memory of their parents Dr. Ali Akhtar and Mrs. Badrun Nisa, and Syed Akhlaque Hadi and Mrs. Nisar Fatima Hadi. Nigar points out that they “made a lot of sacrifices for us and encouraged us to be responsible members of the global community.”

The Islam’s sincerely hope that their gift will encourage others in their community to make similar contributions.

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