Alumni awards for stellar service

Students, staff, faculty and supporters singled out for their ongoing contributions to Concordia

The Concordia University Alumni Association (CUAA) presented its Recognition Awards for outstanding service at a banquet May 29 at the downtown Sofitel Hotel.

Alumnus of the Year Award: Otis Grant

Grant was a high-profile boxer while he was a student at Concordia. He got his BA in Recreation and Leisure in 1993, and became an effective mentor to troubled teenagers, working as an aide at Lindsay Place High School in Pointe Claire.

In June 1999, he was in a terrible traffic accident on a highway near Montreal. During his convalescence, he established the Otis Grant Friends Foundation to assist the needy through sporting events and activities.

More than four years after the crash, Grant launched a boxing comeback, defeating former world champion Dingaan Thobela in November 2003. He continued to win six more times, boosting his record to 39-2-1 with 17 knockouts.

Humberto Santos Award of Merit: Victor Zilberman

Zilberman defected in the early 1970s, when he was the Soviet Union’s national wrestling champion. He came to Canada and studied at Lakehead University, then earned a Graduate Diploma in Sports Administration at Concordia and a PhD at the Université de Montréal.

He started the Montreal Wrestling Club and the Concordia University wrestling team with the 1980 Olympic Games in mind but those games were boycotted to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Zilberman became head coach of the Canadian Olympic wrestling team in 1988 and 1992. He continues to coach Canadian athletes.

Since 1977, his Concordia wrestling team has won 67 CIS gold medals and produced dozens of national champions. He was named the outstanding Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) men’s wrestling coach in 1984 and 1986.

Benoit Pelland Distinguished Service Award: Susan Hawke

A 1974 graduate of Loyola College, Hawke is Associate Librarian in the Career Resource Centre.

In the late 1990s, she began helping with the Concordia Used Book Fair, and took over in 2001 as chief organizer.

The fair has raised $70,000 over 10 years for the Multi-Faith Chaplaincy’s Emergency Food Fund, the Emergency Loan Program, and the Concordia Used Book Fair Scholarship, which Hawke helped establish.

Honorary Life Membership Award: Avrum Morrow

A lifelong hobby painter and art collector, businessman Morrow has commissioned more than 400 artworks for his company’s Old Montreal headquarters.

Recently he established the Dora Morrow Fellowship for Excellent Achievement in Visual Arts.

He is a member of the Advisory Board of Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts, and in 2006 he received a Fine Arts Award of Distinction. As a result of his philanthropy and commitment to the arts, he was named to the Order of Canada. He also devotes much of his time to underprivileged youth.

Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching: Matthew Hays

A prize-winning graduate of Concordia’s film studies program, Hays is a film critic and reporter for the Montreal Mirror.

His articles on popular culture and politics have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, the American gay and lesbian magazine The Advocate and The Globe and Mail. He is a contributing editor to POV, the Canadian film magazine. He is currently working on a book.

He has taught film studies, film history, communication studies and writing for the media since 2004. He has also taught journalism, reporting methods and feature writing.

Outstanding Faculty/Staff Award: Roger Côté

Associate Vice-President (Enrolment & Student Services) Côté was described in his award citation as “one of the most trusted and intelligent people at Concordia.” He has been a university administrator in student services for 26 years. He oversees the Dean of Students office as well as Financial Aid and Enrolment Services.

His goal has always been to enhance the university’s ability to effectively manage student enrolment and promote student success.

MBA Alumnus of the Year: Harold Simpkins

Simpkins, who earned his BA in 1967 from Sir George Williams University and his MBA in 1978 from Concordia, has taught many courses in marketing, retailing, business communications and management in the JMSB.

His online course Marketing Yourself was awarded the 2005 Award for Excellence and Innovation in Instructional Design by the Canadian Association for Distance Education.

In addition to his teaching, Co-op and coaching activities, Simpkins is a community consultant and the president of Montreal-based Youth Employment Services.

Outstanding Student Award: Mohamed Shuriye

Born in Somalia, Shuriye emigrated to avoid the civil war of 1990-1992. In the fall of 2003 he enrolled at Concordia and became involved in the Arts and Science Federation of Association (ASFA), organizing a frosh for new students. He also set up a program to provide eight bursaries.

In his third year, Shuriye was elected president of the Concordia Student Union (CSU). In that position, he tripled the bursaries offered by the CSU from 10 to 30.

Last March, he co-organized Less Talk, More Action: A Youth Summit on Climate Change, which featured keynote speakers Al Gore and David Suzuki. He also helped spearhead the successful 1 per cent campaign to make Concordia greener.

Outstanding Student Award: Jose Gabriel Bran Lopez

Lopez is doing a major in Communication Studies at Concordia and is this year’s president of the Garnet Key Society. He also organized Youth Action Jeunesse, a conference on creative youth empowerment, and was treasurer of the Communications Guild students’ association.

He was one of two Concordia candidates for the 2007 Canadian Rhodes scholarship; he received both the 2006 Rogers Sportnet Scholarship and the Astral Media Scholarship.

Born in Guatemala, Lopez has worked with a variety of organizations around the world. This summer, he will go to Uganda with Concordia’s Volunteer Abroad Program.