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Cathy Dewar

Academic Technician

On Thursday, Jan. 23, President and CEO Claude Brulé presented the President’s Star Award to Academic Technician Cathy Dewar.

The President’s Star Award is given to employees who demonstrate a commitment to excellence in their role within the College community; regularly and consistently demonstrate outstanding service; and truly embody our shared commitment to student success and the College’s values of Caring, Learning, Integrity and Respect.

Nomination of Cathy Dewar, submitted by Cory Haskins:

I am honoured to nominate Cathy for the Excellence in Service Award. Cathy consistently goes above and beyond in her role, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to excellence within our College community.

Commitment to Excellence: Cathy spearheaded the food donation program to the Pinecrest Community Centre during COVID-19. The initiative was extremely well received by the seniors in our local community.

Outstanding Service: Cathy organized the Cornerstone Women’s Shelter charity fundraiser [alongside chef Tanya Skeates]. This activity not only assisted the shelter’s residents but also helped foster a sense of community within the Business and Hospitality department.

Innovative Strategies: Cathy has explored innovative strategies to increase awareness of Restaurant International. [She spearheaded collaboration] with Melissa Mui, a renowned digital content creator based in Ottawa, to promote the program on Instagram. Melissa’s account, @melshangrytable, has 38,000 followers. Melissa visited the college, learned about our program, and created a dedicated Instagram post that garnered over 138,000 views. This significantly increased the visibility and interest in our program. This collaboration highlights Cathy’s innovative approach and underscores the potential of leveraging social media to enhance student engagement and program visibility.

In conclusion, Cathy is a shining example of service excellence. Her dedication, compassion and commitment to our community make her a deserving recipient of the Excellence in Service Award. She truly embodies the values and spirit of our College.

Tony Holyer

Workday Systems Analyst

On Wednesday, Jan. 15, President and CEO Claude Brulé presented the President’s Star Award to Workday Systems Analyst Tony Holyer.

The President’s Star Award is given to employees who demonstrate a commitment to excellence in their role within the College community; regularly and consistently demonstrate outstanding service; and truly embody our shared commitment to student success and the College’s values of Caring, Learning, Integrity and Respect.

Nomination of Tony Holyer:

Tony is an adored member of the Workday Support team. He has an easy laugh and special charm that endears him to others. Tony’s commitment to excellence and embodiment of the core values go hand in hand. He is always ready to assist colleagues with their questions and generously shares his extensive knowledge, even when he is swamped with other requests. He never makes you feel like a burden for reaching out to him and he is always willing to help — even if it’s your third question for him in a day! You always know when talking to Tony that you are going to learn something!

While working on a recent change request relating to banking, Tony has been working late to assist a colleague on tasks that were complex and new. He showed caring while taking time out of his already full day to walk them through the steps in the process and provided extra detail in responses to make sure they understood. He showed learning by diving into some of the tasks unrelated to his role to show the colleague how to complete the work, even though he had to investigate and learn first himself. This change request involves working with an outside company and Tony has showed integrity by ensuring that the work performed by the non-College employees meets Algonquin internal controls and security. He hasn’t been afraid to speak up when there are issues and has been firm in making sure the system build exceeds expectations before moving to user acceptance testing. In this situation he also showed respect because the colleague always felt respected even while making mistakes in learning this new work, and he maintained a professional relationship with both internal and external stakeholders.

These themes are echoed in this example from a Human Resources colleague:

• “Tony consistently demonstrates exceptional patience, dedication and outstanding service when gathering requirements for new HR reports and dashboards. His meticulous approach ensures that every stakeholder’s needs are thoroughly understood and addressed. He eagerly participates in design sessions, configuring several iterations of the reports resulting in dashboards that are both highly functional and user-friendly. Tony’s ability to listen attentively and ask insightful questions has significantly improved our HR reporting capabilities, including the Timekeeper Dashboard, the My Team Management Dashboard, the Training Dashboard and the Executive Dashboard, making him an invaluable asset to our team.”

Tony’s ability to solve complex problems is invaluable. In the last few months, on two separate issues, consultants advised that it was not possible to configure Workday to meet business requirements. In both cases, Tony had an idea about what could work and pursued it from various angles until he had an innovative, workable solution. This resulted in new knowledge shared with colleagues and more efficient and accurate processes in the Absence and Benefits domains.

While not directly interacting with students, Tony appreciates that the more the Workday system can deliver for the College and the easier it is for employees to interact with, the more time, resources and patience they will have for our students.

These few examples are the tip of the iceberg of the role that Tony has played in shaping and evolving the Workday system for the benefit of the College as a whole, and in guiding and mentoring his colleagues, helping us to grow and develop our own skills. We are incredibly lucky to have him on our team and part of our AC community!