News Archives: Governor General Academic Medal Recipients 2022
Thursday, February 2nd, 2023
Governor General Academic Medal Recipients 2022
For the first time, Northwestern Polytechnic (NWP) has been granted to give the Governor General Academic Medal to a student on both our Fairview and Grande Prairie campus.
In 1873, Canada’s third Governor General created the Governor General’s Academic Medals to inspire students to strive for academic excellence across Canada. To this day, it continues to be one of the most prestigious awards that Canadian students can receive.
For this year’s award recipients, Charity Nosa Idemudia and Mauricio Obregon, their post-secondary journey has been life changing. Although their program and time at NWP was different, they both came into their programs with passion and drive.
Prior to completing her Early Learning and Childhood (ELCC) diploma at NWP, Charity had studied software engineering. Charity is originally from Nigeria and moved to Canada with her husband and three children.
When Charity decided it was time to make a life change, she knew she wanted to work with children. While she has always been devoted to volunteering with children, NWP’s ELCC program gave her an opportunity to move into the professional world of child care.
Charity felt a sense of gratitude when her NWP instructors demonstrated unflinching support during challenging times. When she was going through tough moments, they never wavered in their encouragement and compassion.
Throughout the ELCC program, Charity enjoyed learning about children and the way they learn and understand the world around them. Her greatest takeaway was enhancing her skills in supporting their learning and development.
“Different children have different emotional and social backgrounds,” said Charity. “My education supports my current position as a program supervisor where I can use this knowledge repeatedly. This makes me a better educator.”
Receiving the Governor General Award means a lot to Charity because not only was she apprehensive about going back to school, she also had experienced some setbacks during her studies.
She would encourage any student who is struggling with self-belief to stay focused on their goals and never give up because with persistence, hard work and determination even the most seemingly insurmountable obstacles can be overcome. “You should understand that challenges will always come up,” Charity said. “You can overcome them.”
Mauricio is a graduate of NWP’s ThinkBIG Service Technician diploma program. Mauricio is originally from Mexico and moved to Canada when he was two-years-old. His grandfather who was a baker in Mexico had dreams of a better life for his children and grandchildren and together his family made a momentous move to Canada.
After graduating, Mauricio moved to Edmonton where he now works for Finning Canada. Mauricio praises the ThinkBIG program for all the skills it has taught him. He spoke highly of the instructors, whom he credited with helping him to form his goals and ambitions, and the connections and friendships he made were invaluable.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better experience,” said Mauricio. “NWP is a really welcoming place, it made me feel at home”.
As a kinetic learner, Mauricio expressed that the program was the perfect fit for him as it allows for plenty of hands-on work, and that it makes it easy to learn from instructors who are so passionate about what they do.
Receiving this award means a lot to Mauricio and his family.
“I am the first member of my family to graduate from post-secondary,” Mauricio said with pride. “It means a lot to me and means a lot to my family.”
If Mauricio could offer one piece of advice to new students it would be to, “enjoy your time in post-secondary as much as possible. It goes by quick, so hold onto all the notes, it comes in handy later.”
Overall, his experience in the program helped him grow as a person, make new friends, expand his skill-set and opened up many opportunities.
“I really appreciate all the instructors and Fairview staff who helped me along the way. It definitely made it a lot easier. They were all very welcoming, which helped a lot being so far away from my family.”
Both Charity and Mauricio brought with them an infectious passion and enthusiasm for learning, walking onto their respective NWP campuses from different backgrounds. From their new perspective, they were not only able to explore the various opportunities available to them in education but also prepare for a bright future full of boundless possibilities.
Charity and Mauricio eagerly immersed themselves into every aspect of their post-secondary experience and were determined to take full advantage of all that was offered to them. NWP is proud of their accomplishments.
