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11.0 Awards
11.1 Outstanding Graduate Awards
Each year, SUNY Canton honors an outstanding graduating senior in the Baccalaureate and Associate degree programs. The Outstanding Graduate Awards are presented to those deserving students at Commencement each year. Their names are engraved on a permanent plaque at the College and they are each presented with an individual plaque honoring their achievement.
Nominees for these awards are judged on scholarship, personality, and contribution to the campus community. The nominations are limited to those students in the Baccalaureate and Associate degree programs who are seniors eligible to graduate. Students enrolled in a four-year program who are scheduled to receive an Associate’s degree after completing those requirements may be nominated in the two-year category. Eligible students must have a GPA of 3.50 or higher and have been at SUNY Canton for at least one year.
For more information, contact the Student Activities, Involvement & Leadership office.
11.2 David R. Maynard Student Activities Award
The Senior class of 1965 initiated an award for “outstanding contribution to student activities”. The award name was later changed to the David R. Maynard Student Activities Award. This Award is given to a member of the graduating class each year. The recipient receives a plaque at the Honors Convocation ceremony in the spring semester.
For more information, contact the Student Activities, Involvement & Leadership office.
11.3 Northstar Award
A student-given award to an employee of SUNY Canton who has gone above and beyond to assist students in reaching their full potential.
All SUNY Canton employees (faculty, professional staff, administration, secretarial staff, maintenance, College Association staff, food service staff) who have been employed for at least one semester during the current academic year are eligible for nomination. The recipient receives a plaque and gift at the Student Specialty Awards Ceremony.
11.4 Student Specialty Awards
Heritage Award or Outstanding Graduate Award
As nominees for the SUNY Chancellor’s Awards for Student Excellence or Outstanding Graduate Award, these students have demonstrated they have earned the campus’s respect for their academic performance by having a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher and demonstrated leadership skills.
Humanitarian Award
These awards are given in recognition of students with a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.50 who have demonstrated a documentable act of humanitarianism worthy of campus recognition.
Leaders of Tomorrow Award
These students are leaders of a team, group, or organization; students who give their time and expertise to promote teamwork and accomplishment while maintaining a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.50.
Phoenix Award
A phoenix is a mythical bird with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet. It has a 500- to 1000-year life cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs -- which then ignite; both nest and bird are burned, reduced to ashes, only to arise and be reborn again. This award is given in recognition of those students who have either transformed themselves or persisted through some difficult odds to succeed as students at SUNY Canton.
Pillars of Character Award
Nominees for this award exemplify the pillars of good character in our Campus Creed (honesty, respectfulness, responsibility, fairness, citizenship, caring).
Sister Bethany Fitzgerald, S.S.J. Sustainability Award
Sister Bethany, a lifelong resident of the North Country and a member of the religious Sisters of St. Joseph out of Watertown, NY, served as a campus minister for both SUNY Canton and St. Thomas More Newman Center. As an ardent supporter of a sustainable lifestyle, she endlessly labored to raise awareness of sustainability in the community, stressing that we all need to be good stewards of our planet Earth. This award is an extension of those efforts and recognizes students who have maintained a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.50 and have demonstrated, by action, the importance of being good stewards of the Earth.
Spirit of Success Award
These awards are given in recognition of students who maintained a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.20 and have demonstrated active citizenship in the college community.
The recipients receive their awards at a ceremony in the spring semester. For more information, contact the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs/Dean of Students.