Thousands of Carleton Students to Accept Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees
Carleton University will present 10 honorary degrees at its Spring Convocation ceremonies taking place Tuesday, June 10 through Friday, June 13, 2014.
“We applaud the remarkable accomplishments of these national and international honorees,” said Carleton University President Roseann O’Reilly Runte. “Their creativity, talent, expertise, caring, compassion and dedication will definitely inspire the Class of 2014.”
In total, 3,359 undergraduate and 782 graduate students will walk across the stage. Two ceremonies will be held each day in the University Fieldhouse. The morning ceremony will take place at 9:30 a.m. and the afternoon ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. Recipients will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws, Science or Music, honoris causa.
Media are invited to attend. The ceremony will also be broadcast online via live streaming at Carleton.ca.
Thousands of students will graduate during these ceremonies, and some graduates have unique stories to tell about their experiences at Carleton. Please scroll to the bottom of this email for a list of story ideas about our exceptional students.
Please contact Christopher.Cline@carleton.ca or Steven.Reid3@carleton.ca for the media availability of honorary degree recipients and for copies of their addresses.
Tuesday, June 10, 2014 – 9:30 a.m.
Suzanne Fortier will be recognized for outstanding leadership in the Canadian scientific community while fostering research opportunities for future generations of scholars.
Robert Carnegie will be recognized for outstanding contributions to the study of particle physics and his extraordinary service to Carleton University.
Tuesday, June 10, 2014 – 2 p.m.
Sulley Gariba will be recognized for longstanding work and academic scholarship in international development, civil society practices, government policy, and program development in Africa.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014 – 9:30 a.m.
Peter Mansbridge will be recognized for a distinguished career as an award-winning journalist contributing significantly to Canadian culture.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014 – 2 p.m.
Ruth Corbin will be recognized for outstanding contributions to the law especially in the area of Intellectual Property Rights.
Thursday, June 12, 2014 – 9:30 a.m.
Michael McCain will be recognized for leadership in economic development and exemplary values-based entrepreneurship.
Thursday, June 12, 2014 – 2 p.m.
Bruce Cockburn will be recognized for an outstanding career in music along with a commitment to voicing environmental, First Nations and social causes.
Friday, June 13, 2014 – 9:30 a.m.
Mary Louise Fallis will be recognized for a distinguished career as a performer, broadcaster and teacher who has made operatic music accessible to all Canadians.
Friday, June 13, 2014 – 2 p.m.
Giselle Portenier will be recognized for a distinguished career as a broadcast journalist and documentary filmmaker, whose global focus on human rights, especially the human rights of women and children, is also reflected in print.
Angela Hewitt will be recognized for an outstanding contribution to music as a superb and inspiring performer, a brilliant interpreter of classical music and supporter of the arts.
From undergrads who are jumping right into their dream jobs to grad students who studied from afar, Carleton graduates have great stories to tell. We would be happy to connect you with these students, so please get in touch.
- Troy McDiarmid decided to study neuroscience after witnessing both of his grandfathers struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. After graduating with his undergraduate degree from Carleton, he will head to the University of British Columbia, where he was handpicked to work in a lab devoted to the study of schizophrenia and other mental health conditions.
- Just a week after his final exams ended, Calvin Lewis began working as a software developer at a local start-up called Purple Forge, which provides mobile applications to a variety of clients such as municipalities, governments and non-profit organizations.
- After learning American Sign Language in her spare time, Master’s student Nina Doré realized that while the language is invaluable for deaf people, it could also help hearing people rethink how they communicate. She also saw that very little research had been done on the teaching of ASL for hearing people, and decided to devote her thesis to the topic, which she was recently successful in defending. But she’s not done yet. Though Doré is graduating with her peers in June, she plans to delve into the topic again while working towards a PhD in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies at Carleton.
- After spending more than 20 years in the Canadian military, Colonel Anne Reiffenstein enrolled in the MBA program in the Sprott School of Business at Carleton. She is graduating in June, but is currently instructing at the US Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, an accredited graduate degree granting institution delivering curriculum in the Department of Joint, Interagency and Multinational Operations.
- Many people around Carleton’s campus know Sandy Herbert as a long-serving employee who holds the position of administrator in Political Science. What they might not know about Herbert is that she has been plugging away as a part-time BA student for the better part of the last two and a half decades. This spring, Herbert will graduate with an honours degree in Art History.
- Susan Richardson already had a varied career, but at this point it’s safe to say that she has found her true calling in chemistry. She graduated from Carleton with a Bachelor of Science in 2009, and after working for Environment Canada for a time, decided to come back to earn her master’s degree while working with heavy hitting-professors like David Miller and Maria DeRosa. She will graduate with distinction, an extremely rare feat among chemistry students.
- When 24-year-old Victoria, B.C. native Nicholas Burnett graduates with his master’s, he will have set foot on Carleton’s campus exactly one time since beginning his degree. Burnett has been completing his master’s in biology from British Columbia, while working on a project that studies the impact of hydroelectric diversion dams on migration paths of sockeye salmon. He was supervised by Carleton biology professor and Canada Research Chair, Steven Cooke, and the one time Burnett did come to Carleton was to defend his thesis in March.
- Carleton men’s basketball star Tyson Hinz completed his varsity career in the best possible way in March – with the Ravens winning the Canadian Interuniversity Sport men’s basketball championship and tournament MVP trophies in front of a hometown crowd at the Canadian Tire Centre. Though his career at Carleton is now at an end, his basketball career is far from over. He aims to play basketball overseas.
- Students are graduating for the first time from four new disciplines at Carleton. This year’s Convocation will see students graduate with master’s degrees in Health: Science, Technology and Policy; specializations in Digital Humanities and African Studies; and certificates in American Sign Language.
John ApSimon, director of Corporate Relations, will be presented with the Founders Award during the morning ceremony on Tuesday, June 10. This is Carleton’s highest non-academic honour and pays tribute to individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of Carleton through their dedication, generosity and commitment to the values of the university. ApSimon will retire from this position this month.
Outgoing CUSA president Alexander Golovko, who is collecting a BA degree with High Honours in Political Science, will be awarded the Henry Marshall Tory Award during the afternoon ceremony on Tuesday, June 10. It is given to a student who has shown a high degree of academic achievement and also has participated broadly in student life – both on campus and off.
Marc Bedard, who will graduate with an Honours BA with High Distinction in Psychology, will be presented with the Board of Governors Award during the afternoon ceremony on Friday, June 13. The award recognizes voluntary involvement in the not-for-profit sector and is intended primarily to honour non-academic work while pursuing a full-time program of study at Carleton.
For all the details surrounding Carleton Convocation ceremonies and honorary degree recipients, please visit: Carleton.ca/convocation.
Media Inquiries:
Chris Cline
Media Relations Officer
Carleton University
613-520-2600, ext. 1391
christopher_cline@carleton.ca
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