Environmental Design (EVDS) Master candidate, Colleen Arnison has received the Government of Alberta Graduate Citizenship Award (AGCA) for her contribution to community development and community leadership during the 2010-11 school year.
AGCA recognizes graduate students each year from across the province who demonstrate outstanding dedication to their fellow students and/or communities through public service and volunteer activities. The scholarship considers a wide variety of volunteer activities include student government, student societies, clubs, organizations as well as community work.
Arnison has been involved in a multitude of different projects and organizations within Calgary as well as abroad. Within Calgary, she has volunteered at local event and with several social agencies including the Drop-In Centre, Federation of Calgary Communities, and the United Way of Calgary. Her participation at the Calgary Zoological Society in public education and involvement with CKUA Radio Network further enhanced her qualifications for the AGCA scholarship.
Abroad, Arnison volunteered for six months in northern Ghana with the Coady International Institute. The program, funded through Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) Youth in Partnership program, enables young Canadians to gain experience in sustainable development in an international setting.
“In Ghana, I collaborated with a local non-governmental organization, the Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Organizational Development, and supported natural resource conservation projects,” Arnison says. “My experience there allowed me the opportunity to mobilize and educate rural communities to coordinate their own resources as well as learn traditional cultures and way of life.”
Arnison decided to apply for the program because it linked her background in conservation with her interest in international community development. “I wanted to truly understand how the community members see their own community, their relationship to the land, and how they visualize the future.”
Each year, out of the hundreds of applications, only twenty AGCA scholarships are awarded to graduate students at the University of Calgary.
“I feel volunteering and being involved in community development is a vital part of my education,” Arnison says. “Although I did not expect any financial gain from my contribution, it is an honour to be recognized through the AGCA and the University of Calgary.”
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