Cambrian College students Jessica Taylor and Matthew Berube recently received the In-Course Excellence Award from the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation.
Taylor and Berube are two of 300 students from across Canada selected to receive a first-level ($12,500) and second-level ($10,250) award, respectively, from over 2,300 applicants.
In-Course Excellence Awards were created by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation in 2003 to support Canadian college and university students who are midway through their postsecondary education.
Successful applicants must demonstrate exceptional leadership, community involvement, innovation, and academic achievement.
Berube and Taylor exemplify the spirit of the excellence awards through their contributions to Cambrian College and the wider community, stated a press release from the college.
Taylor is a second year student in the Developmental Services Worker program who is known for her desire to help people in all parts of the community. In her first year at Cambrian, she dedicated herself to excelling in her studies as well as improving student life.
She helped to organize a school-wide clothing swap, is the administrator for her program’s Facebook site, and is class representative on Cambrian’s Students’ Administrative Council.
Taylor’s goal is to become a special education teacher, and she is already proving herself to be an educational leader. She works at Child Care Resources in the Out of Home Respite Care, working with children who have autism, and is in the midst of organizing a dance program for children with mobility disabilities and social disabilities.
She also spends time each month supervising fundraising efforts of young dancers at Claire’s School of Dancing.
Berube, a second year Physical Fitness and Leisure Management student, is a longstanding leader in and promoter of athletics.
Growing up in his home town of Hornepayne, Ontario, he coached minor league hockey and soccer, and most recently organized a slo-pitch league.
He has brought his passion for athletics to Cambrian by becoming actively involved in the Cambrian Athletics Association, first as a statistician, student representative, and intramural team captain, and currently as vice president of the association.
Berube also demonstrates a strong commitment to academics. As a student representative on the Physical Fitness and Leisure Management Program Advisory Committee., he has provided valuable input with respect to curriculum changes and a variety of other initiatives. Once he completes his three-year program, Berube intends to pursue sports physiotherapy at one of Cambrian’s partner institutions.
“Jessica and Matthew are exemplary students and outstanding ambassadors for Cambrian College,” said Sonia Del Missier, the college’s vice-president, academic. “On behalf of Cambrian, I congratulate them both and thank them for their commitment to education and for the support that they have provided their peers, their college, and their community.”