College of Arts 2021 Convocation Award Winners

This summer, the College of Arts is delighted to acknowledge the superb accomplishments of our grads!

This summer while recognizing our convocation award medal winners, we have been excited to introduce revamped medals. John Phillips, our Design Engineer with the Interdisciplinary Design Lab (IDL) recently led a team to design and produce our brand-new Gryphon medals. The team working on the design and execution included design technician, Theo Bakker, and student volunteers, Emma Ongman and Emil White. Gaurab Chatterjee, John’s summer research student, did the 3D printing in the IDL where, for the first time, the team experimented with plastic 3D printing materials that have metal powders infused. These required a great deal of experimentation to get them printing properly. The team created a couple of different trophy concepts, but ended up choosing the Gryphon medal, which our new graduates were pleased to receive and Dean Samantha Brennan was thrilled to give out! 

Congratulations to Anna McMenemy, BAS graduate and winner of the College of Arts Medal, awarded to the graduating student with the highest cumulative average.

Currently working as a Communications Intern for the University of Guelph’s One Health Institute, Anna will continue her education at McMaster University this Fall when she begins working on her Masters in Occupational Therapy. Completing her degree during the pandemic brought an abrupt change to how Anna – and everyone! – was studying. She successfully completed her degree online and has found ways to celebrate! We celebrate your success with you, Anna, and look forward to having you back as an alumna!

We congratulate Lindsay North, BAS graduate and winner of the David Murray Medal in Arts

This medal goes to the College of Arts nominee for the University’s Winegard Award. Of her last year at Guelph, Lindsay was very happy to have had some intramural volleyball time and to be able to test her own ability to adapt as pandemic restrictions required her to switch to remote learning to finish her degree. She stayed in Guelph and finished so well! Lindsay is headed to Western this fall to begin her Masters in Clinical Science and Speech Language Pathology. Come back and see us, Lindsay! We are excited to see you step into this future!

Finally, congratulations to Sophie Dernovsek, BA Hons English and winner of the Gold Medal in English

This award goes to the student with the highest standing on the whole of their honours work in English, with an 80% standing and at least 6 semesters of the program at the University of Guelph. One gift of the last year for Sophie was that the restrictions limited distractions. She found she was able to focus on her work and stay in close contact with her advisor, Professor Tim Struthers, throughout the completion of her degree. Sophie has plans to enroll in a Masters in English, but not before she takes a well-deserved year off from studying. Well done, Sophie and well done to all of our wonderful College of Arts award winners!