MRU's First 3M Winner - Tristan Smyth
This year, the English Department's Tristan Smyth was named one of the ten 3M National Student Fellows -- a first for Mount Royal University and one of the first Albertan students to receive this award, an honour which he shares with Emerson Csorba from the University of Alberta.
Tristan found his niche in life at Mount Royal University where he quickly became a voracious learner - coming to understand not only the value of an education but also of becoming educated. Realizing that the key to enriching his fellow students' lives is in the small projects as well as the large ones, he has engaged in numerous roles across campus: a chairman of the Office of Student Conduct; co-creator of the Arts' Citizenship Cup; and primarily, representative of the student voice on a host of institutional councils and committees including General Faculties Council, four Faculty Councils, and a variety of subcommittees.
Furthermore, he works as President of the English Student Society, Events Coordinator of the Film Student Society, Editor-in-Chief of STOPGap (an in-house literary publication), and Speaker of Students' Council. Tristan's latest endeavor, partnering with a team of faculty and students, is as the founder and chair of the Understanding Atrocities: Remembering, Representing, and Teaching Genocide conference, which is an interdisciplinary academic event bringing in Dr. Lloyd Axworthy, Allan Rock, Dr. James Waller, Dr. Andrea Smith, and Dr. Chris Powell as keynote speakers.
He will be joining the other National Student Fellows at the Society of Teaching and Learning Conference this June in Cape Breton. The Fellows will be presenting a keynote panel on post-secondary education in Canada.