Pollitt awards named after college's director of student life

March 16, 2012 at 2:44 pm

By Joanna Becket

Fred Pollitt admits he’s a behind-the-scenes kind of guy.

But, as the director of student life at Loyalist College, Pollitt will be centre stage at this year’s annual Student Leadership Recognition Ceremony luncheon as he hands out awards named in his honour to 25 Loyalist student leaders. The award acknowledges their exceptional contributions to student life in the 2011-2012 academic year.

The awards ceremony luncheon will be held at Loyalist’s Club 213 on March 21, when Loyalist culinary students will get to showcase their newly acquired skills.

“I think the awards, whatever you want to call them, recognize that it’s important to acknowledge students for contributing to the quality of student life and giving back something to the school,” said Pollitt.

The awards were named for Pollitt because of his exemplary role as a leader and mentor to students throughout his 17 years as director of student life.

Chris Detering, 22, in second-year broadcast engineering technology, is one of this year’s award winners.

“My time on student government has definitely improved my leadership skills because I feel like I’m bringing a voice to all of the programs in media studies,” said Detering. “I was always trying to help people in one way, shape or form and I thought, ‘why not run for student government and actually have the power to do so?’”

Introduced in 2007 to acknowledge the commitment and contributions of student leaders as members of the student government, the program was expanded in 2008 to include other outstanding leaders including class leaders, peer tutors, and student ambassadors.

“When students become engaged with student life, they see improvements that can be made. They want to leave a legacy,” said Pollitt.

“They become focused on projects and have it down to a science. They send out surveys and get a huge response – maybe 1,000 responses. Then they’ll look at the feedback from full-time students to find out what improvements they’d like to see made. Out of that, they’ll develop a game plan.”

“There’s a real culture here at Loyalist,” he said. “In this environment, students learn how to take the lead, go forward and complete

projects.”

April Chamberlain, 21, in third-year civil engineering technology, is vice- president of student life.

“It’s been a really amazing experience. I’ve met so many great people. I’ve gotten to know Loyalist College President Maureen Piercy and she’s very supportive of student government and each of us as individuals. I’ve participated in many big projects. It’s helped my leadership skills and I now take more initiative in my personal life.”

This year alone, under the stewardship of the Loyalist Student Government, the school installed its 15th hydration station; six were installed in the month of February alone. They also made improvements to the quiet lounges that flank Alumni Hall, opened the new student space called the Link Lounge, and completed the expansion of the student fitness centre.

“It’s a great fitness facility, and the students seem genuinely pleased to have additional space and better equipment,” said Pollitt.

Andre Lodder, 23, a second-year photojournalism student, said, “It’s a huge honour to be selected. I think student life is important at Loyalist College. Anything we can do to support it is a good thing.”

Pollitt Award Winners 2011-2012

Chris Barnim

April Chamberlain

Dan Vanden Broek

Lise Rouleau

Robert Hoekstra

Marcus Curle

Rebecca van Haarlem

Allyee Mulvihill

Dalton Sanderson

Chris Detering

Natasha Pereira