News

2016-17 UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
November 22, 2017

The achievements of the 24 award-winning students were recognized at a lunchtime reception held on November 17 at the department. Attended by many of the students, together with donors, faculty and staff, it was a relaxed event with a fittingly celebratory mood.


L-R: Donors Robert C. Douglas, Ushi Choudhry, Dorothy Wolfson, and
Bill Wolfson listen as Gillian Hamilton introduces the awardsAssociate chair for undergraduate studies Professor Gillian Hamilton opened the proceedings by noting the academic accomplishments of these students: Three-quarters of them earned marks in the 95-99 range, usually multiple times, and one-third of them earned at least one perfect score on their transcript. Looking beyond the sphere of the transcript, she remarked on the exceptional tenacity and fortitude that these students have demonstrated as they navigate their way into and through the academy, some while holding down a job, others initially struggling with difficult course material. Their willingness to take risks, too, is manifest, from taking courses in topics far outside their evident facility with economics to participating in exchange programs at other institutions.

In attendance were donors Mrs. Ushi Choudhry, Professor Emeritus Don Dewees, Mr. Robert C. Douglas, Professor Bill Wolfson and his wife Mrs. Dorothy Wolfson. Among the awards introduced by Professor Hamilton were two new scholarships. The first, the Robert C. Douglas Scholarship in Economics, comes courtesy of Douglas, who is a graduate of our program, and his wife Joanne Sutherland. The second, the Al and Eleanor May Scholarship in Economics, has been endowed by Dorothy Wolfson, Bill Wolfson and Dorothy's brother Mark. Mrs. Wolfson spoke briefly about her and Mark's decision to create the scholarship to honour their late parents, neither of whom had the opportunity to go to university. "We were raised in a family where education was so very important – my brother and I are university graduates, as are our children," she said. She noted that this first recipient of the award (Daisy Chee Ching Chak) had "an astounding GPA of 3.97 and is certainly someone that my parents would be extremely proud of."

Interim chair Professor Martin J. Osborne assisted Professor Hamilton with the presentation of the awards to students, while the gathering was treated to thumbnail sketches of the recipients from both inside and outside the academic frame. Hidden among these academic high achievers are a Varsity Hockey athlete, muralist, guitarist, chess player, paramedic, salsa and ballroom dancers, boxer, TEDxUofT organizer, jazz pianist, and an aviator.

⇒ View more information on the awards