2022 Recipients
Virtual Innovation in Esthetician Retailing
Innovators: Susan Paone and Lisa Maurice (School of Hospitality and Tourism)
Susan and Lisa created an impactful experiential learning opportunity to prepare students for the new digital era in the spa industry. Students worked with spa supplier, TheraGenesis, to develop digital content for their web and social media platforms. Through this experience, students received mentorship from their teachers and industry experts, and developed skills in branding, social media, video and image capture, and digital communication.
Susan Paone
Lisa Maurice
Lightboard
Innovators: Shauna Gupta (International Department)
Shauna recognized the opportunity to improve online student engagement through a lightboard, a transparent whiteboard made of glass with internal lighting to make writing glow. She visited Home Depot, picked up the materials and created the set up in her kitchen. Teaching her EAP courses on lightboard gave Shauna an opportunity to teach as though she was in class, simulating the classroom environment. This setup was highly conducive to creating a natural link with her students, inviting them to join her in the learning process in an engaging and fun way.
Shauna Gupta
Entrepreneurial and Experiential – New realms of discovery
Innovators: Cammie Jaquays and Melanie Sodka (School of Business and Management)
Over the past few years, Melanie and Cammie have worked together to create a strategy to expand entrepreneurial experiential learning. The strategy focuses on five key initiatives. One of them is the NC $5 Challenge, where student teams create a venture, beginning with only $5 in seed money. Their innovative initiatives have helped students develop new ventures, created an entrepreneurial classroom spirit, and engaged the NC community and the Niagara business and not-for-profit community.
Melanie Sodka
Cammie Jaquays
Innovators: Lindsay Taylor, Taryn Wilkinson and Amber Schmucker
The Sustainability Ambassador program empowers NC students to identify and execute their own sustainability-focused projects with mentorship from peers and college staff. This initiative, led by student, Lindsay Taylor, and supported by Sustainability team members, Taryn Wilkinson and Amber Schmucker, highlights the incredible opportunities that come from listening deeply to NC students, establishing a supportive community, and affording students the opportunity to create and lead.
Lindsay Taylor
Taryn Wilkinson
Amber Schumucker
NC Virtual Preschool
Innovators: Angela Hayes, Lindsay Milligan, Cathy Teixeira, Kelly Wilcox, Drew Kean, Jodi-Lynn Noble, Wendy Coxon (School of Community Services)
To support experiential learning for Early Childhood Education students through the pandemic, the ECE team developed a ‘virtual preschool’, where students developed lesson plans and recorded activities that were shared through a public facing website. While providing a crucial learning experience for NC students, these activities also became a lifeline for many parents and caregivers in our community who were without in-person daycare or kindergarten through much of the pandemic.
Angela Hayes
Lindsay Milligan
Cathy Teixeira
Kelly Wilcox
Drew Kean
Jodi-Lynn Noble
Wendy Coxon