Valedictorian nomination

The Valedictorian provides a formal address to all fellow graduating students and to faculty and guests at Convocation. Any Mount Royal student, staff, or faculty member can nominate a graduating student to be Valedictorian. Potential candidates should be graduating and convocating at either the Spring or Fall convocation, and must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.2, be a strong public speaker, and have a history of involvement in campus or community activities. To start the nomination process for Valedictorian, click the form button on the right.

Nomination guidelines

The award
The University will usually select two Valedictorians for the Spring Convocations and one Valedictorian for the Fall Convocation. Valedictorians will write and deliver an address to fellow graduates, faculty, honored guests, friends and family attending Convocation.

Eligibility and criteria
Nominees will be considered by the Selection Committee in terms of the criteria listed below:

Open to all students graduating from credit programs
Student can be graduating at the upcoming Spring or Fall Convocations
Must have a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher
Involvement in campus and community activities will be considered
Candidates should have strong public speaking skills

Nominations
Nominations are to be made on the form available from the Student Awards and Financial Aid Office, or online.

Nominators must be faculty, staff members or students of the University.
To nominate a student for Valedictorian, the nominator must complete the nomination form and have the candidate sign the form and confirm all contact information is correct. Attached to the nomination form must be a letter or paragraph outlining the rationale for nomination.
Nominations are to be received by the Manager, Student Awards and Financial Aid no later than Feb. 28 each year.

Selection process

Nominated students will then be sent a letter asking them to submit a resume of their work and extra curricular activities, as well as a short essay (approximately 250 words) explaining why they would like to be Valedictorian and the message they would bring.
After reviewing the information provided by the nominees, the selection committee will contact finalists for a personal interview. Interviews normally take place in late April.
Selections for June and November Convocations will be made at the same time.
The Selection Committee may select up to three Valedictorians for the Spring Convocation, depending on the number of ceremonies being held. Or alternately, one candidate may be selected to speak at more than one of the Spring ceremonies. Only one Valedictorian will be selected for the Fall Convocation.

Notification process

After the interview process, the successful candidate will be contacted by phone.
Those who were selected for an interview but were not selected as Valedictorian will receive a letter informing them of the committee's decision
An e-mail will be sent to the Valedictorian's nominator, as well as the Dean and Chair of the program/department from which the Valedictorian is graduating.