There are more than 1,170 students at Moose Jaw’s Saskatchewan Polytechnic campus that are eligible to become new alumni and take part in convocation ceremonies today.
The ceremony, to be broadcast live, will allow graduates, friends, family, and the community at large that are unable to attend in person to join in celebrating this major academic and career milestone.
As part of the ceremony, a number of members of the Moose Jaw campus were presented with awards for their hard work, academic achievement, and contributions to Sask Polytech as a whole.
Altaf Iqbal Mansuri, a graduate of the Business Management postgraduate program, received the Outstanding Citizenship Award during the ceremony.
“I feel very honored because this Outstanding Citizenship Award is a huge honour for me, it recognizes the time, energy and heart I have put into supporting others. For me it also reflects the spirit of community of Sask Polytech where students are empowered to lead, serve and grow,” said Mansuri.
Mansuri served on the Sask Polytech Student Association (SPSA) throughout his academic career, ultimately advancing from vice president to president of the Moose Jaw campus. He was also one of 25 students selected to be a member of the Saskatchewan Post-Secondary Student Council and serves the community by working with city officials through his contributions to the Moose Jaw Youth Advisory Committee.
Mansuri kept a very full schedule during his time at Sask Polytech, and he attributes his success to the strategies used by teachers and staff at the campus.
“I managed because of our Saskatchewan Polytechnic instructors and staff. They were very supportive,” said Mansuri.
“I was able to balance the time between all these things while studying, association activities and these committees. I was doing all three things at the same time as my part time job.”
Now that he has completed his financial services and business management programs, Mansuri is keeping an eye to the future.
“I’m actively exploring full-time opportunities in the finance and business sectors, particularly in roles such as financial advisor and related positions. I’m especially interested in working with credit unions or financial institutions within Saskatchewan where I can apply what I have learned and contribute meaningfully,” said Mansuri.
“I want to add that I am thankful to the faculty, staff and the fellow students who supported me in this long way, and this journey has been a memorable one. I hope to continue contributing positively, whether through my career or community involvement.”
Also honoured during the convocation was Business instructor, Genelle Payant. Her efforts in creating an engaging learning environment by tailoring strategies to student needs. She is credited with demonstrating respect, an accommodating approach, and the willingness to work with the accessibility team to support her students, a key consideration in the Human Resources sector.
Payant said she was happy to receive the accolade.
“It's a huge honour. I was surprised in some respects because I'm well aware that many of my colleagues are doing really wonderful things in the classroom and making a huge impact with their students as well.”
Her work in creating an engaging classroom environment has been her mission throughout her six years as an educator with Sask Polytech and Payant pointed to a recent classroom exercise as an example of the work she does.
“One of the things I was really excited about and proud of that we accomplished this past academic year was in one of the HR classes that I teach recruitment and selection to,” said Payant.
“One of the things that I teach them is how to put together a job description? What is a job advertisement? How do we put those together nicely to accomplish what they're supposed to serve companies and candidates.”
She explained that she made contact with a local company which was experiencing difficulties in attracting talent and offered assistance from her class. That offer to assist provided her students an opportunity to learn using a real-world example of the work they would engage in post-graduation, much to the excitement of her class.
“(The client) got lots of different varieties of job ads that they could look at and review, so it was really, really a wonderful experience. That’s one of the benefits of Sask Polytech education is that we do lot of work with industry whenever we can, and this was a really good example of that.”
“At the end of the day (the client) was really, really excited. They had a number of different job postings... They incorporated some of what the students produced into their actual job postings, which was really exciting for (the students) to see that because they got to see their work reviewed by an actual business. They got comments right from the client on their work.”
Outside of work as an educator at Sask Polytech, Payant is an active member of the board of directors for the Chartered Professionals in Human Resources (CPHR) and served a crucial role in aligning the Business Diploma in Human Resources and the HR Certificate with CPHR standards.
Other awards were presented during the ceremony; the Governor General’s Academic Bronze Medal was presented to Aya Alshamaa for maintaining the highest average in the Moose Jaw campus Adult 12 program.
Electrical Engineering Technology program graduates, Dawei Mao and Chad Tesky received the General’s Academic Collegiate Bronze Medal for the highest average for a diploma at the Moose Jaw campus.
An honourary degree in Applied Sciences was also awarded to Moose Jaw & District Chamber of Commerce CEO Rob Clark.
More than 6,125 students are eligible to graduate across Sask Polytech campuses this year.