Photo of one of the IMI Awards (Transition Titan)
One of the many IMI awards handed out at the Director's Circle Awards Night
Ryan Cerrudo

Undergraduate winners take a bow at awards night

Sarah Jane Silva
sj.silva@utoronto.ca

The Institute for Management & Innovation’s student community was celebrated yesterday evening at the inaugural Director’s Circle & Awards Night.

The event took place in the Innovation Complex’s signature rotunda, and brought together faculty, staff and students into a one-evening networking event showcasing students’ achievements from the past year.

In total, 21 students received awards in seven categories recognizing students for their contributions in academic life, student life and community service.

The winners were chosen by a committee consisting of the faculty and staff from the Department of Management who wanted a more tangible way to acknowledge these outstanding contributions.

“The awards were something that we thought of in the summer as a way to recognize our students,” said Heather Hines, assistant director of operations.

“We have great students and we want to make sure that we recognize them ourselves. We want to say, ‘You’re awesome!’”

Students were greeted with opening remarks from the Department of Management's chair, Mihkel Tombak who stressed the importance of distinguishing oneself in the job market, followed by encouraging words from undergraduate programs director, Louis Florence who along with associate chair, Soo Min Toh, presented the awards.

Afterwards, professional development directors Iqra Jawaid and Muneer Malik from the Student Management Association (SMA) and the Undergraduate Commerce Society (UCS) congratulated the recipients and spoke about the fast-track program: a series of five soft skills workshops held throughout the year beginning with a leadership workshop, and followed by business fashion and etiquette, active listening, negotiation, goal setting and orientation workshops.

Full winners list:

Global Citizen Service Award (Internal Focus)

  • Fareha Zakir

Global Citizen Service Award (External Focus)

  • Naina Gazula

Transition Titan Awards

  • Saman Salman
  • Ibironke AyinOluwa
  • ZiWei Chen
  • Andrea Koop
  • Adam Walek
  • Muhammad Sairum
  • Lin Xu

Ambassador Award

  • Linnet Kocheril

PSDP Champions

  • Linnet Kocheril
  • Arooj Shakeel
  • Vivek Bhatt

IMIvator Leadership Award

  • Daniel Jayasinghe

Academic Excellence Awards

  • Farah Kadhim
  • Junyo Kim
  • Sunhee Kim
  • Suhavi Makkar
  • Zara Asif
  • Fizza Hasan
  • Chaofan Liu