Student Awards

1. IABC/Toronto’s Student of the Year Award

2. Kay Staib Memorial Scholarship

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IABC/Toronto’s Student
of the Year Award

IABC/Toronto recognizes student members each year who exhibit leadership and excellence in communication. The student award recipients possess creativity, strong writing skills and passion in both their academic and volunteer projects.

Established in 2004, the IABC/Toronto Student of the Year Award winner will receive $500 cash prize and will be recognized at the IABC/Toronto OVATION Awards Gala.

It is FREE to enter the Student of the Year Award. Only IABC/Toronto Student Members can enter the Student of the Year Award. You can join IABC by downloading and submitting an IABC student application. Please submit your IABC student application PRIOR to entering the Student of the Year Award. IABC Student memberships are only $48 for a one year membership.

The following required items must be submitted to enter IABC/Toronto’s Student of the Year Award:

1. Completed entry form
2. A news release of no more than two pages on how you plan to make an impact on the practice of public relations/communications in the future (to be submitted on 8.5″ x 11″ letterhead, no smaller than 10 point font and 1/2″ margins)
3. One writing sample (can be from school work and can include a news release, speech, communications plan, etc.)
4. An up-to-date resume

IABC members can view past IABC/Toronto Student of the Year winning entries by downloading the OVATION Winning Entries Booklet.

Winner Recognition

The IABC/Toronto Student of the Year will be honoured at th OVATION Awards Gala and will receive the following:

• Cash prize of $500
• IABC/Toronto 2012 Student of the Year Award plaque
• Work featured in the 2012 OVATION Award Winning Entries Booklet
• Winning announcement in IABC/Toronto’s newsletter Communicator, website and news releases

Judging

All entries will be judged by a panel consisting of two members of the IABC/Toronto Board of Directors. Entries will be judged on creativity, clarity, conciseness, total impact, and most importantly, how well they meet the stated objectives.

Entry Information

Entry deadline: March 30, 2012
Download the entry form here.

Previous winners of the IABC/Toronto Student of the Year Award:

• 2011: Regis Dudley – Humber College
• 2010: Matthew J. Dudman – Sheridan College
• 2009: Jess Bennett – Seneca College
• 2008: Maricel Dicion – Centennial College
• 2007: Scott MacDonald – Humber College
• 2006: Annette Robertson (Yuen) – Humber College
• 2005: Kathryn McMullan – Humber College

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Kay Staib Memorial Scholarship

Remembering KAY STAIB (1926-1992)

Kay Staib ABC, MC, IABC Fellow, was a force of nature behind IABC/Toronto; a founding member and one of the cornerstones for our achievement in becoming the great, strong and ever-growing organization we are today. Throughout her career, she mentored newcomers and chapter presidents’ alike and set standards of excellence for herself, the profession, and later in her life, her students.

Kay’s commitment to communications was from the heart. She served in a countless number of positions in IABC — locally, in Canada and for the International organization — as well as on the advisory boards of at least two community colleges; as an officer of the Toronto Press Club and the Canadian Association for the Mentally Retarded, and as sponsor and advisor for such other not-for-profit groups as Caravan, Toronto’s annual multicultural celebration in the ’70s and ’80s.

Her contributions to the field and to IABC – in Canada and internationally – earned her more than 80 local, national and international awards, including a Gold Quill. An early proponent of professional accreditation, she was one of the first Canadians to earn the designation.

In return, her efforts were recognized with the highest individual honours: She was twice named Chapter Communicator of the Year, then District Master Communicator, and in 1984, IABC Fellow.

Kay was never too busy to help when she was asked (and sometimes, as she often admitted, even when she was not asked). The word “no” simply was not in her vocabulary.

During her professional career, she initiated innovative and impactful employee communication programs at Eaton’s (where she also broke the gender barrier at the management level) and American Express Canada. Later, after forming her own consultancy, she joined the Humber College Public Relations program; sharing her experience and extending her dedication to excellence to the classroom. Her students were the fortunate recipients of her generous investment in the future of communications and of IABC: she devoted two to three days each week to them, hardly a “part-time” teaching commitment.

A legacy to us all, the standard for excellence that she embraced in every venture is now inherent in the award that IABC/Toronto has established in her memory shortly after her death in 1992; a bursary presented annually to leading students from the diploma corporate communications programs in the Toronto area.

Nominations

Students submit their own nominations to their faculty advisors. The advisors then submit the nominations to the IABC/Toronto board or to an awards panel of IABC member instructors and board members.

Nominees must be in their final semester and in good standing in a public relations or corporate communications diploma or certificate program at any of the participating schools:

• Centennial College
• Durham College
• Humber College
• Loyalist College
• Ryerson University
• Seneca College
• University of Guelph – Humber

There is one $500 cash award per school.

Selection guidelines

Nominations will be judged based on the following qualities and attributes:

• Academic excellence;
• Spirit of scholarly inquiry and professional curiosity;
• Leadership and initiative;
• Active participation in extracurricular activities demonstrated through involvement in campus, faculty or community activities; and
• Professional contributions, demonstrated through involvement with the IABC.

A committee of the college faculty advisors and two full-time instructors will select the winner from each school.

Entry guidelines:

Entry Deadline: Applications are posted with each participating schools. No submission fee is required for the entries for the IABC/Toronto’s Student Awards.