Gretta Chambers Student Leadership Awards

Gretta Chambers Student Leadership Award

Peter McDougall
An Honours student in Biology, Peter has been an active member of the McGill community, as a member of the Athletics Board, the Sports Hall of Fame Committee, the Athletics Logo Committee and the Student Athletics Council, as well as a member of the men's rugby team and the alpine ski team. This year, he was awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council summer grant. Peter's community work is also impressive: at Dawson College he won the Gallagher Award for Community Leadership and has been a camp counsellor, children's ski coach and drama coach, and has even sorted cattle in the Eastern Townships and tagged sea turtles in Barbados at McGill's Bellairs Research Institute.

Gemma Peralta
A McGill Political Science graduate, Gemma is already a dedicated member of the McGill family. She has served in the McGill Student Organization for Alumni Relations (SOAR) since 1996, first as a general member, then as Vice-President, and this past year as President. She was named to the McGill Scarlet Key Honour Society for Excellence in Leadership and Service, won the SOAR Award for Outstanding Executive Contribution, and is the recipient of numerous scholarships, including the Zonta Young Women in Public Affairs Scholarship and the Victoria Chamber of Commerce Scholarship for Community Service. Gemma has chaired Class Action for the Faculty of Arts, has served as Vice-President, Academic, in the Arts Undergraduate Society, and has been a volunteer dispatcher and walker in the McGill Walksafe Program. Finding time for her schoolwork may be her greatest achievement.

Elisa Kearney
A Joint Honours student in History and Political Science, Elisa has been very active in McGill athletics, both on and off the field. She has served as Vice-Chair of the McGill Athletics Board, Chair of the Student Athletics Council, and Co-Chair of the McGill Intercollegiate Sports Council, as well as a member of the Dean's Advisory Committee on Women's Issues. In 1998, she received the Andrea Taylor Memorial Award for track and field, and this year received the Muriel Roscoe Award for Leadership and Proficiency in Athletics. She competed at the CIAU National Championships in track and field and her team placed first in the 4 x 400 relay in 1999-2000. Elisa has been very active in fundraising for student athletics, having learned first hand from her council experience how scarce Ð and yet how important Ð funding is for intercollegiate sports.

Jeffrey Heaton
An Honours students in Economics, Jeff is a tireless volunteer with a host of campus accomplishments under his belt. He has been a dedicated student leader in Residences, and formed the Rez Dogs hockey team Ð complete with mascot, t-shirts and fan club Ð which this year skated onto the ice at Molson Centre for a game against the Napanee All Stars. Jeff has helped organize Frosh activities and designed the popular Frosh t-shirt himself. He has also been a strong supporter of events like the Blood Drive, of many intramural athletics teams, and of the McGill Sports Day Camp. "If you see a guy with a megaphone cheering on the troops, that's probably Jeff," says Director of Residences Flo Tracy of the fellow who calls himself Chief Hooligan and Megaphone Man for McGill varsity sports events. This winter, Jeff raised the funds to build the McGill Community Rink on the lower campus and then organized a 24-hour charity hockey tournament. He has been a volunteer in Turkey for community development work and in Panama with a conservation agency. A recipient of the Scarlet Key Award this year, Jeff's energy, passion and enthusiasm are infectious.

Andrew Tischler
This year's President of the Students' Society of McGill University (SSMU), Andrew is an exemplary student leader. The Political Science student has been an active member of many McGill boards, committees and planning groups and through SSMU created a yearly small-business grant for student entrepreneurs with the City of Montreal, a new shuttle service for the downtown campus, and a new low-fare student travel program. He has been a panelist on CBC town halls, the Newsworld show Counterspin, and Canada AM. He speaks six languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Hungarian), and in 1998 founded his own business on St. Denis Street in Montreal, the popular candy store Sucre Bleu, which was voted one of the top five stores of its kind in the first year of operations by the Montreal Mirror.