2019
2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009
Jamie Rodger
Senior Digital Marketer
Jamie Rodger has been honoured with the President’s Star Award.
The Senior Digital Marketer received the tribute from President Claude Brulé on Thursday.
Rodger’s nomination lauds him for assisting the AC Hub during a critical staffing challenge at the start of the 2019 Fall Term. The AC Hub sought his help to address a shortage of expertise in Marketo.
“Jamie is a well know and highly-skilled resource to the College community with Marketo,” it reads. “Jamie immediately came to our assistance with probing and thoughtful questions and was committed from the get-go to ensuring our communications plan (consisting of nine different emails over a six-week timeframe) remained on time and on target within the previously established goals.
“At an equally busy time for College Marketing, Jamie never once hesitated to assist the AC Hub Team, often resulting in his assisting our team and spending additional time on our requests without any reservation,” it continues. “In doing this, Jamie went well above and beyond the call of duty within his own role.
“Jamie’s efforts, support, and assistance made a significant contribution to the success of AC Day 1 to our learners, and certainly to the AC Hub Team…. Even now, Jamie continues to be a reliable, caring and amazing resource for the AC Hub Team as we continue with our Fall Term communications plan.”
Presented on: December 19, 2019
Kina Simmonds
Office of the Director, Finance and Administrative Services
Kina Simmonds has been honoured with the President’s Star Award.
The Administrative Assistant for the Office of the Director, Finance and Administrative Services received the tribute from President Claude Brulé on Wednesday.
Simmonds nomination commends her for being a” huge resource not only for Grant Perry (Director of Finance and Administration) but for the whole of Grant’s management team.
“When we are in management meetings, she often is the first to offer help and her normal refrain is ‘I can do that for you,’ or ‘Do you want me to do that?’ She manages our website (Procurement) … and she is totally on top of helping with our weekly huddles and organizing tasks for us — again, offering to help without being asked and taking on tasks that sometimes we didn’t even know we needed.”
Presented on: November 13, 2019
Brenda Klerks, Gabi Fazekas, and Vivien D’costa
Payroll
Brenda Klerks, Gabi Fazekas, and Vivien D’costa were the most recent recipients of the President’s Star Award. Klerks, Fazekas, and D’costa were commended for their dedication to employees throughout the implementation of Workday.
The team put in countless extra hours and serving all employees directly and indirectly with a commitment to excellence. Also noted was their outstanding customer service, unbelievable patience, and extreme dedication.
Presented on: June 28, 2019
Grant Perry and Brent Brownlee
Finance & Campus Services
Grant Perry and Brent Brownlee’s nomination commends them for extra-ordinary leadership in co-leading the Department of Physical Resources during a vacancy of the Director position earlier this year.
Perry, Director of Finance, provided daily leadership to the major capital construction projects. Brownlee, Director of Campus Services, provided daily leadership to the team as a whole, ensuring the department could function. These leadership roles were taken on in addition to their primary responsibilities as senior leaders in busy departments.
These roles clearly demonstrated caring, respectful, dedicated, and collaborative leadership.
Presented on: June 21, 2019
Karine Savranskaia
Student Recruitment
Over and above her daily workload, Karine is always willing to stop and help anyone who needs it. This year, the Registrar’s Office was short staffed and Karine stepped in and assisted them in many operations including opening the daily mail, and managing their finances and payroll, all on top of taking care of the Recruitment team’s needs during peak travel times.
Although Karine is not a recruiter, she has become an expert in assisting prospective students through the late application process. At the start of each term, Karine assists the late applicants apply online right in the Recruitment office, and she has expanded the late application station hosted at Open Houses from two laptops to size, allowing more people to apply and confirm on site right at the event.
Karine’s commitment to both staff and students is exceptional, and her enthusiasm for the College is infectious. She is warm, kind, generous, and always remembers her colleagues’ birthdays. She is always willing to participate in College activities, and her passion for dance enhanced the Student Central video!
Submitted by: Chris Brennan & Joanne Del Duca
Presented on: June 14, 2019
Valerie Duthie
Office Administration
Valerie captures the College’s core values of Caring, Learning, Integrity, and Respect. She cares about her students, and continues to develop ways to enrich their learning experience in courses such as Spreadsheet Applications, Bookkeeping, and Accounting.
Valerie is the faculty lead in several courses in the Office Administration program. She works tirelessly with the part-time Accounting teachers and mentors them each semester – always willing to step in and offer her assistance. Even when she is not teaching a course, she willingly offers her support in course preparation.
Valerie does not look for accolades, nor does she expect to receive recognition for the fabulous work she does. She quietly goes about doing her job, never hesitating to lend a hand when needed. She is always there to eagerly offer her support.
Nominated by: Laura Vena
Presented on: June 12, 2019
Angela Slonosky
English and Communications
Angela exemplifies the College values of Learning, Caring, Integrity, and Respect in all her interactions with colleagues and students alike. She regularly goes above and beyond to ensure that student concerns, be they exemption requests, PLAR requests, or course-related issues, are heard and responded to in a professional and timely manner.
Angela’s door is always open, and she is never too busy to discuss best practices, share teaching stories, or just lend an ear. She will often take on additional roles and responsibilities to help lessen the burden on her peers.
Nominated by: Amanda Keon
Presented on: June 11, 2019
Valerie Hill, Rob Sullivan, Carolyn Cote, Lynn Schumann
Learner Driven Plan
The Learner Driven Plan team took on the important role of leading the peer-to-peer sessions with faculty to collect input to help in the development of the Learner Driven Plan.
“Valerie and Carolyn presented their very comprehensive methodology and plan to the project Executive Sponsors and with full endorsement, rolled out their plan and began their one-on-one and one-on-few sessions throughout the Fall 2018 term. Rob joined the team in October and brought an important part-time faculty perspective to the process. During many months of input collection, the team led important discussions with 337 faculty. This group of faculty professionals must be commended for their steadfast efforts to ensuring the faculty voice is heard during the development of the Learner Driven Plan. It was and is a pleasure to work with these colleagues on this transformation project.”
Nominated by: Lynn Schumann
Presented on: June 10, 2019
Katrina Harder
Algonquin Centre for Construction Excellence
As administrative assistant in the Algonquin Centre for Construction Excellence, Katrina is recognized for her unwavering commitment to students and colleagues. Katrina is an amazing front line staff member in the ACCE team. She is a team player, always has a welcoming smile, and contributes her efforts towards a caring and friendly environment.
Katrina is dedicated to student success, and often assists students who have extenuating circumstances complete missed assessments and exams. There is no job too small nor too large for her to take on with enthusiasm and care to detail. She consistently demonstrates Algonquin’s core values of caring, learning, integrity, and respect for students, faculty, and staff.
Nominated by: Lisa Lamb
Presented on: June 6, 2019
Amanda Wahab
Registrar’s Office
In her day-to-day interactions with fellow employees, Amanda enables the College’s values of Caring, Learning, Integrity, and Respect. She is one of the most engaged individuals anyone has the pleasure of working alongside, and her knowledge, innovative thinking, and creativity are a few of the attributes that make her a candidate for the President’s Star Award.
Amanda is responsible for key pieces related to student registration. She’s consistently working with stakeholders to improve systems and processes for both students making payments and staff processing those payments within GeneSIS.
Amanda was also a pillar of knowledge throughout the work stoppage during Fall 2017. She was present for every meeting involving student fees being reimbursed, the student financial aid funds, refund exception payments and the methods put in place for payments for the shortened Winter 2018 semester.
Nominated by: Sharon Rendle
Presented on: June 6, 2019
Helen Ens
School of Media & Design
Helen is the true example of all of Algonquin College’s core values of caring, learning, integrity, and respect. Her colleagues value her ability to always be professional and calm in her dealings.
Helen is extremely caring in all that she does, and consistently checks in on her colleagues. She is always approachable and available despite her demanding schedule. Helen’s colleagues pride her on always finding a solution. “If Helen doesn’t have the solution, she doesn’t stop until she finds one.”
Nominated by: Darlene Tierney-Goebel and Karen Acton
Presented on: June 6, 2019
Sara Jordan
Centre for Accessible Learning
Sara approaches all activities and pursuits with enthusiasm, passion, commitment and her very own signature sense of humour. She is a team leader, and goes above and beyond the duties of her job on a regular basis to provide excellent service to students. Sara is willing to collaborate, and is consistently open to new initiatives that involve other College stakeholders.
Sara’s work performance demonstrates commitment beyond the College’s core values including, but not limited to excellence, integrity, leadership, loyalty, respect, and selfless service.
With Sara’s drive and leadership, she ensured the successful operations of the College’s Health Services area, including its’ associated team of highly dedicated and compassionate health care professionals, while at the same time contributing as a key resource to the College’s exploration of an alternative delivery model for Health Services.
Over the course of the past year, Sara’s extraordinary courage, patience, selflessness, empathy, and generosity were displayed on numerous occasions. She is a consummate role model and mentor to everyone inside and outside the College, and is recognized for her professionalism and positive attitude.
Nominated by: Katherine Hurd on behalf of the SSS Management Team
Presented on: June 4, 2019
Charles Nixon
School of Advanced Technology
Charles significantly contributes to the environment at Algonquin College on a daily basis. Charles has great technical and people skills, which are highly valued by staff and students. He takes action quickly and professionally, with positive results. He has provided innovative solutions to support the needs of the Algonquin College community.
Technologist Academic, ICT Systems & Networking, Charles Nixon is passionate about helping his students, supports them in succeeding, and establishes phenomenal rapport with them. Students have expressed gratitude and appreciation for having the opportunity to work with, and learn from Charles.
“Not only does Charles care about his students, but he also cares about his co-workers,” his nominator wrote. “Sometimes he just comes in to tell you that you are doing a great job, or just to say hi and make you smile.” Charles supports the entire faculty in the ICT-AP & ICT-SSN departments, and has also supported both the Continuing Education and Mechanical and Transportation Technology departments.
Charles is an invaluable resource to the ICT-SSN department and has consistently demonstrated an outstanding skillset, attitude, and work ethic in all interactions.
Nominated by: Angie Peterson
Presented on: June 3, 2019
Chris Lackner and Victoria Tiqui-Sanford
President’s Office and Communications
As the Executive Assistant to the Algonquin College Board of Governors, Victoria goes above and beyond each day. Her tireless work on behalf of the Board consists of developing and managing vital communications and meeting material. She plays a multi-faceted communications role between the College and the Board, as well as between the Board and the College community.
As the Communications Officer, Chris writes and edits for myAC, coordinates positive media coverage of the College and drafts internal correspondence on various issues. He untangles and redistributes information that students and employees require to be able to do their jobs effectively. One example of Chris’s outstanding work is his assistance in emergency communications during the January phishing attack on the College. He handled the complex and continuous stream of communications related to the incident so that the College community remained informed and protected from the possibility of more attacks.
Nominated by: President’s Office and Communications department
Presented on: May 28, 2019
Michele Hall
School of Media and Design, Professor
Michele exemplifies the core values of Algonquin College on a daily basis. She demonstrates the values of caring, learning, integrity, and respect with profound respect. She is a natural collaborator and consistently mentors part time faculty, and supports through sharing her extensive knowledge as a subject matter expert as well as curriculum specialist. Michele is committed to integrating the learning of communication students to their programs of study, and in doing so seeks out opportunities for laddered learning. Her passion for the students is evident as her office is constantly filled with students seeking help outside of the classroom. She cares deeply for her students, and seeks out opportunities to celebrate them in activities outside of the classroom environment. Michele has opened up a practice of sharing that is truly collaborative and welcomed.
Nominated by: Cath Kenney
Presented on: May 23, 2019
Jenny Buckingham and Gordon Adam
Registrar’s Office
As a team, Jenny and Gordon have supported the technology needs of the entire Registrar’s Office through our move to Student Central. Through countless questions about telephones, printers, laptops, QNomy as well as many other system related inquiries, Jenny and Gordon have both shown an exceptional level of job competence all while delivering superb service to the Registrar’s Office. They have both exhibited tremendous patience with their clients and have fostered excellent working relationships not only throughout the Registrar’s Office but with their colleagues in ITS as well. They have shown a tremendous level of commitment and dedication throughout the move in process to student central and have gone above and beyond so many times that this text box doesn’t have enough room to further elaborate. Jenny and Gordon work extremely well together and have earned the respect and trust of all of the Registrar’s Office employees (both support staff and administrators). They bring a calm and confident demeanor to their roles and are always willing to help. I would like to recognize Jenny and Gordon specifically for their efforts in moving the Registrar’s Office to Student Central. Without their “behind the scenes” commitment, our office would be struggling to meet student needs.
Nominated by: Bryan Eburne
Presented on: April 17, 2019
Sarah Gauen
Human Resources
Sarah Gauen, Algonquin College’s Inclusion and Diversity Specialist, was awarded the President’s Star on Wednesday, Feb. 6 for her constant demonstration of the College’s values and mission. Gauen’s work includes the Women’s Leadership Committee and bringing the “He for She” campaign to Algonquin College this year.
“Everyone here recognizes all the work that you do for the College …” said President Cheryl Jensen at the surprise award ceremony, “and for that, you are deserving of this award.”
Gauen’s nomination describes her as “a Champion of our College values … In her commitment to diversity and organizing events to support inclusion and diversity at the College as well as her commitment to making processes and policies better for our students, faculty, and staff.”
The nomination heralded “her professionalism and passion to make Algonquin a safe and inclusive place for everyone. Either by being a key organizer (Pride Parade) or by being a vocal leader and member of committees (Inclusion and Diversity Circle).”
“The desire and passion for her role and the impact she strives for is evident in everything she does. She is passionate and caring. She upholds and is a strong example of living our values, not only because it is a part of her role at the College but because that is who she is.”
Nominated by: Christopher Doré
Presented on: February 6, 2019
Chris Carroll
Communications and Public Relations
Social Media Community Officer Chris Carroll received the President’s Star Award on Wednesday.
While handing out the award, President Cheryl Jensen thanked Carroll for his tireless work ethic and commitment to Algonquin College’s digital impact. “”You live this place, Chris,” she said during the surprise award presentation attended by members of ACET and his colleagues in Algonquin College’s Communications department.
Carroll’s nomination form outlines his tremendous commitment:
“On a daily basis, you will find Chris Carroll running from one end of our campus to the other, interacting with students, employees, and guests of the College. Not only must he be prepared well in advance for events on campus, but he often has to drop everything to respond to incidents that happen on the spur of the moment. Chris manages to do all this with great professionalism – capturing ‘a day in the life’ of Algonquin every single day. This is no small feat – he has to be willing to document things as they unfold naturally, but also has to reassure people and guide them to get the best results for social media photographs and video. Anyone can post social media content, but Chris goes the extra mile to personalize our efforts, making sure that he is as inclusive as possible — this includes getting the social-media handles of all our graduates prior to convocation (that’s nearly 500 handles!), a Herculean feat of organization. This ensures each grad receives a shout-out on their big day and is just one example of how Chris goes above and beyond. Chris also makes sure that every voice is heard. Thanks to his efforts, Algonquin has a nearly 100-per-cent response rate on Facebook — with 75,000 followers, that is an impressive track record that requires around-the-clock monitoring.
Nominated by: Ruth Dunley and Chris Lackner
Presented on: January 23, 2019