An environmental engineering student at the University of Northern British Columbia has been awarded one of only ten 3M National Student Fellowships. Second year student Stephanie Doherty is the third UNBC student to receive the national honour in two years. Doherty is the only student from a British Columbia post-secondary institution to receive this distinction, which honours outstanding student leadership and vision.

Media download: UNBC environmental engineering student Stephanie Doherty.

“Going to a small university with such a focus on the environment and sustainability has opened up venues for me to develop as a leader and provided me with opportunities to invest in my local community,” says Doherty, who was also part of the UNBC team that won the gold at the Canadian Engineering Championships in Ottawa earlier this month. “This award represents national recognition of the values of sustainable living and learning.”

3M Fellowships recognize students who have demonstrated qualities of outstanding leadership and who embrace a vision where the quality of their educational experience can be enhanced in academia and beyond. Doherty will receive a $5000 award and have the opportunity to develop a collaborative project on a retreat to Cape Breton in June.

Doherty was nominated for the award by three UNBC staff and faculty members for the leadership she showed through her involvement with the Prince George Public Interest Research Group (PGPIRG) where she worked as a research assistant studying the feasibility of an expanded compost system at UNBC. She was also employed at UNBC in September to conduct a waste audit of the student residences on campus in order to collect data for the project.

“I’d like to thank those involved at UNBC who were instrumental in my winning this award,” says Doherty, who attended Westside Academy in Prince George.  Doherty joins UNBC students Selena Demonoff and Cameron Bell, who won two of the ten 3M National Student Fellowships awarded last year.

In 2011, UNBC English professor Lisa Dickson was awarded a 3M National Teaching Fellowship, UNBC’s second professor to achieve the honour. International Studies Professor Heather Smith was the first UNBC professor to receive this distinction.

The awards are sponsored by 3M Canada and the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE).