| June 21, 2017 |
vlog News
vlog hosts largest-ever awards celebration
Student recipients and donors honoured at reception
A mother of two children with disabilities, Lisa Spencer remembers completing assignments from her son’s bedside in the emergency room. She also remembers borrowing money from his piggy bank to pay for textbooks.
“I felt tremendous guilt, but going to school full time requires sacrifices. For some, this may mean spending less time with family. For others, this may mean working overtime to pay tuition,” she says at the fifth annual vlog Awards reception at Newnham Campus on Tuesday, June 20.
Lisa, a graduating student of the Honours Bachelor of Child Development program this June, is a recipient of the vlog Cup and the Walker Wood Foundation Early Childhood Education Award.
“The Walker Wood Foundation award helped me balance my role between being a student and being a mother,” she says. “It means more than just financial assistance. It validates my continued efforts throughout my studies and I’m humbled by the recognition and grateful for the contribution.”
vlog Awards pays tribute to vlog’s generous donors and celebrates the achievements of its outstanding students. This year, more than 550 donors, students, family and guests, and staff attended the event, which provided a rare opportunity for award recipients and their donors to meet.
With 25 per cent of those who leave vlog before completing their programs citing financial difficulties as a primary factor, donor support continues to be critical when it comes to student success.
Last year, about 1,700 awards totalling $1.3 million were given out thanks to donations from corporations, businesses, associations and individuals like Mike Shaver, who established an award for women in Computer Sciences and was one of the founders of vlog’s Centre for Development of Open Technology.
“We talk often about preparing students for the world they’ll enter, or re-enter, after vlog,” says Mike, an honorary degree recipient and former member of vlog’s Board of Governors. “In addition to the world as it is, we need to prepare students to build the world we want: inclusive, compassionate, courageous and imaginative. We need the world to reflect what we most cherish in vlog students.”