Western undergraduate students Justine Baek and Nicola Paviglianiti have been named among 10 3M National Student Fellowship Award recipients, 3M Canada and the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) announced today.
Introduced in 2012, the 3M National Student Fellowship Award honours undergraduate students in Canada who have demonstrated qualities of outstanding leadership and who embrace a vision where the quality of their educational experience can be enhanced in academia and beyond.
Justine Baek, Medical Sciences (Scholar’s Electives)
Baek has demonstrated exceptional perspectives on life, academics and her future. She fosters a passion for community empowerment and has worked the past seven years to promote youth activism and education in her community. The recipient of Western’s National President’s Scholarship, Baek founded and co-chaired the Western Student Research Conference, an experiential learning initiative that grants undergraduate students the opportunity to showcase their research, exchange ideas and network.
Currently, Baek serves the Canadian Road Safety Youth Committee having presented as a TEDx speaker, coordinated nationwide conferences and spoken to launch Ontario’s Provincial RIDE Assembly. In 2014, she was Head of State for the Canadian delegation and an elected Secretary General for the G20 Youth Summit in Munich, Germany. She now works to inspire a greater sense of global awareness in Canadian youth as she helps spearhead the development of Connect, the first official online youth platform of the United Nations Association of Canada. She credits her achievements to the “compassionate support and mentorship of her supervisors and teachers, her fellow executive team members, and her family.”
Nicola Paviglianiti, Health Studies and Italian Language and Culture
Originally from Calgary, Paviglianiti is a catalyst for change and takes collaborative action to create inclusive empowering environments for diverse populations. She recognized a need to support out-of-province students in postsecondary education and she is the co-founder and director of Western’s Out of Province Student Association (OPSA), providing social and academic programming across campus. As a Health Studies student, she is also actively involved in random acts of kindness initiatives and is researching kindness as an innovative, evidence-based means to foster student and community mental health and wellbeing.
Paviglianiti’s passion for global health led her to create her own internship with the United Nations in Thailand in its HIV/AIDS Health Promotion Unit. Through her involvement, she discovered the value in learning beyond the textbook, and she now actively incorporates this into her leadership practices and position on student council. Nicola eagerly mentors other students and facilitates opportunities for them to fully engage in their education, and is co-chairing Western’s first university-wide Multidisciplinary Research Conference.
Beyond Western, other 3M National Student Fellowship Award recipients included: Jason Earl, Bishop’s College; Emilie McIntosh, St. Lawrence College; Piper Riley Thompson, Mount Allison University; Wali Shah, University of Toronto at Mississauga; Navarana Smith, University of Victoria; Vrindy Spencer, Quest University; Karen Young, University of Toronto; and Aniqah Zowmi, Brock University.
Each winner receives a $5,000 award, registration at the STLHE conference, participation in a day-long retreat held in Vancouver, B.C., as well as accommodation and funds toward travel to the conference.
