York University celebrated the academic excellence of some of its best and brightest, current undergraduate and graduate students during its annual Circle of Scholars reception on March 26.
York President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri attended the event, which took place in the Kaneff Tower on York University’s Keele campus. He delivered the keynote address and congratulated the student scholarship recipients on their success. Some 90 guests attended the celebration, including graduate and undergraduate students. Janet Morrison, vice-provost students, and senior members of the University’s academic team, including deans and faculty were at the event.
President Mamdouh Shoukri with some of the York University President's Scholarship recipients
“As president, there are two things that I really take pride in doing,” said Shoukri. “One is talking about how great our University is, and two is recognizing and honouring the excellence of our future students. .If you look around the room you’ll see that you are surrounded by Ontario’s high school leaders — people like you who have excelled in academics, athletics and extracurricular activities. Congratulations, this is an incredible achievement for which you should all be proud.”
He outlined the results of a recent report from Statistics Canada that identified a university degree as “the investment of a lifetime.” The report, said Shoukri, found that graduates of bachelor’s degree programs cumulatively earn more than $600,000 more than high school graduates between the ages of 35 and 54. The choice to study at York U, he told the students attending the Circle of Scholars reception, was one of the best decisions they could have made.
“Now more than ever, York is attracting and retaining the best and brightest from across Canada, and beyond,” he said. “More and more students are choosing York as their first university of choice because we are one of Canada’s leading research and teaching universities.”
York's president with some of the recipients of the Ontario Trillium Scholarship Program Awards
Shoukri told those present that he truly believes that York University has the best students, faculty, staff and alumni and that the University community is rich in diversity. “This diversity will expose you to different views and ideas, allowing you to open your mind and grow as a person so that you can become a global citizen.”
He then encouraged every student at the reception to embrace their time at York University and take advantage of the opportunities present on campus. He spoke about the third annual President for a Day event on March 19 during which Shoukri switched roles with Emanuel Ebrahim, a third-year student in the Faculty of Health. “The winner of the contest, Emanuel Ebrahim, is a Kinesiology Honour Roll student who volunteers in research labs, with the York UNICEF club and other student groups, and is remarkably poised and driven to build school spirit and enhance the student experience at York,” said Shoukri. “I think Emanuel is representative of many of our talented, hard-working students, and an example of how the student experience at York University is more than an education. With his full and varied schedule and activities, this is a student who is getting as much out of his time at York as possible.”
Shoukri closed his remarks by urging current and future students to embrace their University experience.
Graduate scholarships, new recipients:
Elia Scholars Program
- Diane Sepa-Kishi
- Sarah Switzer
Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarships
- Jeremy Mathers
- Lauren Fournier
NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships CGS-D
- Diane Sepa-Kishi
Ontario Graduate Scholarship
- Sarah Switzer
Ontario Trillium Scholarship Program
- Kevin Chrisman
- Murat Ucoglu
- Resat Cam
- Shawnee Hardware
- Yana Boeva
SSHRC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships
- Bretton Fosbrook
Susan Crocker & John Hunkin Scholarship
- Jeremy Mathers
- Lauren Fournier
Undergraduate scholarships, new recipients:
Alumni Awards of Distinction
- Atiyya Bacchus
- Ilan Kogan
Audrey’s Place Foundation Nursing Award
- Jee Eun Kim
- Nikki Chen
The Chancellor Bennett Entrance Award for the Westview Partnership
- Kibra Tsegaye
- Mariam Ahmed
- Naba Chaudhry
- Nafisa Mohamed
- Najaha Ali
- Nana Adu-Poku
- Onkar Bedi
Concours provincial de francais
- Camille Slaght
Ethel Harris Entrance Scholarship at Glendon
- Florence Belanger-Jones
- Laurence Dion
- Mathilde Emond-Bouchard
- Sophie Chamberland
Governors’ Awards of Distinction – Bryden
- Parshad Brahmbhatt
Governors’ Awards of Distinction – John S. Proctor Entrance Scholarship
- Nicole Doray
Harry Arthurs Alumni Families Entrance Scholarship
- Kiera Dinsmore
The Honourable William G.C. Howland Award of Excellence
- Kristina Mansveld
- Thi Nguyen
International Circle of Scholars Scholarship
- Usman Ahmed
Lassonde Scholarship
- Alexandra Innanen
- Ariel Laboriante
- Benjamin Brunson
- Maydha Maithani
- Samuel Clemens
- Tyler Rajaram
- William Rooney
Oscar Peterson Scholarship – Entrance, Ministry of Training Colleges & Universities (MTCU)
- Michael Shanahan
Qian Liu Scholarship
- Yue Guan
Quebec Entrance Scholarship
- Mathilde Emond-Bouchard
Schulich Leader Scholarship
- Ben Shachar
- Kristen McIntosh
- Yaakov Green
Seymour Schulich BBA/iBBA Entrance Scholarship
- Aleksandar Dimitrijevic
- Benny Gendelman
- Fatima Amjad
- Ranjana Chouhan
- Tarnimah Rahman
Tanna H. Schulich BBA/iBBA Entrance Scholarship
- Alberto De Lio
- Armin Aghaei
- Bradley Hopgood
- Jaewoo Choi
- John Escobido
The William & Nona Heaslip Scholarship
- Daniel Song
- Jeanine Farmer
York University Academic Excellence Scholarship for International Students
- April Tan
- Dongho Yoo
- Eva Nguyen
- Jiahao Huang
- Thuy Nguyen
- Vladimir Martintsov
- Yi Fei
York University President’s Scholarship
- Aleksandar Golijanin
- Amyna Amyna
- Antonette Spagnuolo
- Cecilia Evoy
- Endi Batino
- Erik Kimmerer
- Francesca Kennedy
- Holly Hilborn
- Ivana Tewelde
- Juan Loja Bojorque
- Liam Bekirsky
- Sarah Solomon
- Shaili Perez
- Steven Campbell
Graduate scholarships, renewed recipients:
The Chancellor Bennett Doctoral Scholarships for Liberal Arts
- Erin Dolmage
CIHR Doctoral: Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship
- Juha Mikkonen
Elia Scholars Program
- Stephanie Fisher
- Thomas Cheney
- Victoria McArthur
Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarships
- Stephanie Fisher
- Thomas Cheney
- Victoria McArthur
Ontario Trillium Scholarship Program
- Anton Shevchenko
- Baligh Jahromi Ali
- Claudia Wier
- Francesc Gabriel Rodriguez Mansilla
- Gizem Cakmak
- Han Zhang
- Kenneth Lawrence Cardenas
- Lesley Deas
- Miriana Lausic Arratia
- Oded Haas
- Patrick Darren
- Soma Tripathi
SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship
- Erin Dolmage
SSHRC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships
- Danielle Kwan-Lafond
- Dilys Haner
- Douglas Hunter
- Gorcin Dizdar
- Pierre-Yann Dube Dolbec
Undergraduate scholarships, renewed recipients:
Alexander David McKenzie Scholarship
- Sara Hanson
Alumni Awards of Distinction
- Asharib Syed
- Joseph Palmieri
- Menal Huroy
- Qiaochu Jiang
The Chancellor Bennett Entrance Award for the Westview Partnership
- Arun Alagarajah
- Kosal Chhin
- Najma Mohamed
- Prabhjot Heer
- Sejal Gopal
- Varsini Kanesh
Governors’ Awards of Distinction – Betty Jean and John M. Bankes Entrance Scholarship
- Amrit Dev
Governors’ Awards of Distinction – Ross
- Milena Mednikov
The Honourable F.H. Barlow Scholarship
- Chanakya Sethi
The Honourable William G.C. Howland Award of Excellence
- Margaret Robbins
- Valerie Crystal
Harry Arthurs Alumni Families Entrance Scholarship
John Mastrangelo
HSBC Women in Business Leadership Scholarships
Tanvi Gupta
Oscar Peterson Scholarship – In-course MTCU
- Eric Miller
- Sarah Thawer
Seymour Schulich BBA/iBBA Entrance Scholarship
- Somanshu Prasad
Scotiabank Turks and Caicos Scholarship
- Saskia Telfort
Schulich Leader Scholarship
- Arpit Sharma
The William & Nona Heaslip Scholarship
- Alexander Moakler
- Elizabeth Fung
- Lekeeya Kinghorn
- Paul Moroz
York University President’s Scholarship
- Alicia Boylan
- Arya Khanal
- Aryeh Price
- Brian Sunga
- Catherine Spagnuolo
- Cheryl Tansony
- Christina Ransom
- Daniel Kulevski
- David Marrello
- Dimple Dalal
- Elizabeth Fung
- Erin Compeau
- Esther Phua
- Jacob Colosi
- James De Cristoforo
- Leigha Comer
- Michael Chan
- Michael McGrath
- Nicholas Arseneau
- Nicole Mulder
- Oron Eli
- Sam Saljoughian Esfahani
- Sam Zhu
- Samira Hekmat
- Sayjon Ariyarathnam
- Stephanie Moutsatsos
- Stephanie Tassopoulos
- Tessa Turnbull