June 2, 2021

‘Graduation Tour’ earns Humber Innovation Award

The ‘2020 Humber Varsity Graduation Tour’ has earned Humber College its second Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Innovation Award.

Notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic, Varsity Academic Coordinator Mallory Lawton desperately wanted graduating student-athletes at the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) institution to experience some sort of special ceremony and the ‘Graduation Tour’ was created.

Lawton travelled across Ontario to bring a socially distanced graduation ceremony to nearly 50 Humber student-athletes. She created personalized signs, with caps and gowns, bringing graduation to their homes.

“The ability to be able to recognize graduates over the past 15 months has been a challenge to all institutions, and Humber, through their ‘Graduation Tour’ initiative demonstrated that this recognition can happen,” said Vince Amato, CCAA President. “Their hands-on approach of bringing graduation to the student-athletes at their homes was a unique and innovative way to tackle the situation.”

Post-secondary education and athletics were obviously deeply impacted in 2020-21. With the cancellation of sport and graduation, Lawton quickly pivoted to help Humber student-athletes transition to online learning, when many lost the enthusiasm for academics.

Her tireless efforts saw Humber earn the 2020 CCAA Academic All-Canadian Recognition Award for the first time, with a program-record 15 Academic All-Canadian recipients. Despite these incredible accomplishments, the Class of 2020 would not receive their proper recognition and many ‘at-risk’ student-athletes lost the chance to cross the stage in front of friends and family.

It was at this point, the ‘Graduation Tour’ was born.

“This initiative perfectly embodied the spirit of the ‘Hawk Family’, where the success of every student-athlete is our main priority,” said Ray Chateau, Director of Athletics and Recreation at Humber College. “Graduating from post-secondary is a major milestone in the lives of these young adults and we wanted to show them how proud we were of their hard-work and dedication – especially during these unprecedented times.”

The feedback from the student-athletes and their coaches and families demonstrated exactly how successful this tour was. Every student and their household were excited for Lawton’s arrival, with many baking cakes and snacks, while others socially distanced to congratulate the new graduate.

The ‘Graduation Tour’ was an excellent way to highlight and showcase the success of Humber student- athletes. It was a bright spot during extraordinary times, bringing happiness to all involved.

“A number of our student-athletes were first-generation graduates, and several overcame significant obstacles to graduate, and we did not want their tremendous success to go unnoticed,” said Chateau. “The Grad Tour allowed us to showcase their achievements and celebrate their dedication and commitment to academic excellence.”

This is Humber’s second CCAA Innovation Award, which has been awarded annually since 2002. They earned the award in 2017 with the #HereToPlay initiative.