Each year at convocation, MacEwan University recognizes the outstanding achievements of our graduates with academic awards. Here are the award recipients for the Spring Class of 2024.

President’s Medal for Academic Excellence and Student Leadership

The President’s Medal recognizes students for their exemplary combination of academic achievement and contribution to the betterment of MacEwan University. Medal recipients are graduates who demonstrate the best qualities of a MacEwan student by maintaining a high grade point average while demonstrating leadership through active participation in university-wide committees, groups, organizations or extra-curricular activities. 

EVA HOLLAS
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science Honours
President’s Medal for Academic Excellence and Student Leadership – Degree

Eva Hollas is graduating at the top of her class, and received numerous honours and awards during her time at MacEwan, including the Department of Anthropology, Economics and Political Science’s Best Paper Award. She is taking with her multiple experiences as a research assistant to MacEwan faculty members, including an honours thesis supervised by Dr. Andrea Wagner that has evolved into a co-authored paper pending publication. A leader in the MacEwan community and beyond, Eva took on volunteer roles to organize a clothing drive for Syrian refugees, with the Boys & Girls Clubs Big Brothers Big Sisters of Edmonton & Area Society, as a peer reviewer for MUSe and with MacEwan’s Office of Human Rights. 

"My journey to MacEwan started like most – I was 17 and had recently graduated from high school – but the academic success I’ve had as a student at MacEwan University was never a given. My grades from high school were so poor that I couldn’t apply directly to a program, so I enrolled in Open Studies, hoping to figure out what I wanted to study. I took an English and a Business Management course, but neither sparked my interest.

One afternoon in 2015, I sat in the bleachers in Building 8, watching Question Period in the House of Commons on the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) while perusing MacEwan’s course catalogue. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized that studying politics was an option. At the time, the 2015 refugee crisis had taken the world by storm, and I knew that studying political science would provide me with an opportunity to comprehend the state of the world better. 

That epiphany prompted me to enrol in POLS 101 with Dr. Chaldeans Mensah, whose passion and excitement moved me to apply to the Bachelor of Arts program.

The following year, I suddenly and very tragically lost my father. I tried my best to maintain my grades, but when they started to suffer, I decided to take some time away from my studies. When I returned to MacEwan in 2021, my friends had all graduated and I felt like I was starting over again from square one. I was nervous and lacked confidence in my academic abilities, but I knew I owed it to myself to make the most of the situation. I’m so incredibly grateful that I did. 

As I pushed through the fear of returning to school, I started to network, applied for all kinds of opportunities on campus – from Model United Nations to volunteering with the Office of Human Rights – and made sure to be an active participant in class by engaging with my fellow students and professors. When I reached out to Dr. Andrea Wagner with my story, she supported and encouraged me in a way that made the impossible feel not only possible but plausible. She suggested that I work hard to maintain a 4.0 GPA for one academic calendar year and then enrol in the Political Science Honours program, and that’s what I did.

Under Dr. Wagner’s supervision, I wrote an A+ honours thesis on the effect of female representation in right-wing populist party leadership on the electorate in Italy and France that we recently transformed into a co-authored working paper. 

I will be attending the University of Victoria in the fall, and my goal is to become a professor so I can follow in the footsteps of my mentors and inspire future generations to fall in love with learning and achieve academic success.”

Watch Eva Hollas's convocation address

Governor General’s Silver Medal (Degree)

The Governor General’s Silver Medal is awarded to the student who achieves the highest overall academic standing based on their Graduation Grade Point Average (GGPA) in a degree-level program. This medal is awarded at Spring Convocation.

• Ava Brooke Buchsdruecker, Bachelor of Science, Biological Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Science

Governor General’s Bronze Medal (Diploma)

The Collegiate Bronze medal is awarded to the student who achieves the highest overall academic standing based on their Graduation Grade Point Average (GGPA) in a diploma-level program (minimum two-year, full-time duration). This medal is awarded at Spring Convocation.

• Samantha Elisabeth White, Library and Information Technology Diploma, School of Business

Dean’s Medal for Academic Excellence

The Dean’s Medal is each faculty or school’s highest academic honour. Each dean may award one medal to a graduating student in a certificate or diploma program and one medal to a graduating student in a degree program. Medal recipients are recognized by the dean of their faculty for their exemplary success in meeting the learning challenges and academic requirements of their programs of study.

• Nevin Janzen, Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, Faculty of Arts and Science
• Ashlyn Renee Rousseau, Gerontology Certificate, School of Continuing Education
• Angela Maria Schroeder, Bachelor of Child and Youth Care, Faculty of Health and Community Studies
• Heidi Sara Goertzen, Therapist Assistant Diploma, Speech Language Pathologist Assistant, Faculty of Health and Community Studies
• Cendy Puspita Sari, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Faculty of Nursing
• Morgan Lynn Nelson, Psychiatric Nursing Diploma, Faculty of Nursing
• Evan Curtis Eng, Bachelor of Commerce, Accounting, School of Business
• Asar Parnmukh, Library and Information Technology Diploma, School of Business
• Maximilien Ezra Charles Quilliam, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Studio Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Communications
• Charise Eryka Romero Delson, Music Theatre Performance Diploma, Faculty of Fine Arts and Communications