This year's top University of Alberta School of Business graduate boasts a résumé crammed with experiences as varied as student government, extracurricular campus activities and a four-year stint in the U.S. Marines.

Benjamin Aberant, an Edmonton native and a graduate of McNally Composite High School, is the winner of this year's Dr. Hu Harries Medal in Business. The award is awarded annually to students graduating from the School of Business with the highest academic standing in the final two years of the BCom program.

Aberant said that the award is a great honour and remained modest about his accomplishments.

"I felt really honoured since the Faculty of Business has many really top students in it. It was never my goal to win an award. I just studied as hard as I could. But I did always want to get the best mark that I could. I was humbled when I found out about the award," said Aberant.

Instead of going straight into university or taking a year off to backpack through Europe, Aberant opted to follow his childhood dreams of military service. During his service as an infantryman for four years with the United States Marine Corps, he was stationed in Japan, Korea and Australia while earning various military awards.

"The Marines just provided me with the challenge that I wanted at the time. The movies over-dramatize things a bit; it wasn't like in the movies. But it is still pretty intense," said Aberant.

"It's an experience that's completely different than university. I think it's about building up life experience. This experience probably helped me succeed in university because it helped me develop the necessary skills and I think this will continue to benefit me in many aspects of life."

Aberant has seemingly mastered the art of juggling school work and a healthy social life with copious amounts of extracurricular activities. He actively participates in a variety of campus organizations that range from the Undergraduate Business Games Team and Business and Beyond Toastmasters Club to Safewalk and the Discipline, Interpretation, and Enforcement Board of the Students' Union. In addition, he was also a teaching assistant for a business class last year.

For his present and future success, Aberant credits his father for his wisdom and strong guidance.

"I'm really grateful for his presence - he really helped me a lot in life," said Aberant.

Aberant is working as a labourer with Suncor for the summer, then he will be attending York University's Osgoode Hall Law School this September. He was awarded the Osgoode Centennial Entrance Scholarship for Alberta, an award given annually to one student from Alberta based on academic excellence and aptitude for legal studies. Aberant is still undecided as to which stream of law that he would like to go into.

"At this point, I'm most interested in criminal law. But it's most likely to change since I have yet to know what law school is going to be like. I like to compete and I don't like to be bored. I think this is a career path that will never be boring," said Aberant.

For the first time in its history, the U of A's Augustana Faculty graduated students from two institutions simultaneously.

Of the 165 students who graduated from Augustana on May 29, 92 received Augustana University College degrees and 73 graduated with U of A degrees.

This was a first for the institution, which became a U of A faculty after officially joining the U of A last year.

University of Alberta President Rod Fraser was present at the celebrations and had some sage advice for Augustana's class of 2005.

"Dare to do mighty things," he urged a rapt audience.

Convocation day began with a service dedicated to the graduating class and celebrated with choral music arranged and led by Campus Ministry Music Director Brendan Lord. After the convocation ceremonies, students and faculty gathered for a traditional tree planting. Nineteen trees line the beautiful campus boulevard, representing each graduating class since the school became a degree-granting institution in 1985.

The twentieth tree now stands to symbolize the class that represents this historic year in Augustana's 95-year-old story. The students will now carry on with their own stories as they write their futures and dare to be among those 'in the arena.'

One of these students has already risen to that arena in many respects. Joel Purkei came to Augustana from Kenya three years ago and graduates with a three-year Augustana University College Bachelor of Arts, with a double concentration in interdisciplinary studies and political science. While at Augustana, Purkei was a champion athlete. In fact, came out for a cross-country practice early in his first year and wound up a core member of Augustana's two-time national champion cross-country running team, though he hadn't been a competitive runner prior to coming to Augustana.

"I have never seen a runner improve as much as Joel did," said coach and professor of mathematics, Dr. Gerhard Lotz.

Purkei admits that getting up to run in -20C or worse was a challenge for someone from Kenya, but he was one of the team.

"I will always carry Augustana in my heart," said Purkei. He hopes to be a leader and a force for positive change in Kenya when he returns, but like most young people, he is in no rush to get home. Currently he is working to save up money for the next chapter of his life: "I want to become a pilot," he explaind.

Jessica Bulger, of Hinton AB, graduated with a four-year music degree, but chose to extend her stay for an extra year in order to participate in Augustana's Rural Development Exchange program in Mexico.

"In that particular exchange, the world's your textbook," she said.

Bulger originally intended to transfer from Augustana after two years, but like many, found the small campus experience, plus the opportunity to participate in programs like the Rural Development Exchange, a powerful combination.

An active volunteer with campus ministry during her time at Augustana, Bulger feels that an invitation is extended to all Augustana students with a sense of adventure.

"It's the personal touch that I think really makes Augustana an outstanding institution. And not only that, but Augustana offers so many different opportunities for students to learn by experience," she said.

Two University of Alberta students are proving that a little friendly competition never hurt anybody - in fact, it may have won them the top academic honours of their graduating class.

Old Scona Academic High School graduates Stefanie Schienmann and Christina Sawchuk were outstanding students in high school, and continued to achieve at the U of A. Both are receiving the Governor General's Silver Medals this year, for achieving the highest academic standing overall upon the graduation of their undergraduate degree.

Schienmann, the valedictorian of her high school class, said she felt honoured and surprised when she learned of her awards.

"I was really surprised. I didn't even know this award existed until about a week ago and I hadn't thought of winning a big award like that," said Schienmann

Schienmann, will be graduating with a Bachelor of Science with honours in molecular genetics. She has been working in the laboratories of Dr. John Locke and Dr. Tracy Raivio for the past two summers and will continue her studies at the University of Calgary come this Fall.

Aside from her studies, Schienmann is also finishing her Piano Teacher's Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Toronto. She spends most of her free time teaching students and enjoys the opportunity to relax from school.

"I love playing just for fun and even teaching. It's nice just being with young kids. It's just a completely different atmosphere from university and it's such a nice change," said Schienmann, who has also received the Rt. Honourable C.D. Howe Memorial Fellowship, for attaining the highest overall academic standing in her academic program.

Mirroring Schienmann's sentiments, Sawchuk said she feels humbled by the award.

"I have to say it's honestly such a surprise for me. It's not something that I consciously aimed at, but it's something that I'm happy that I've attained," said a very modest Sawchuk.

Despite her impressively high academic standing, Sawchuk tries to balance out her demanding school schedule by participating in the University of Alberta Mixed chorus and the University of Alberta Faculty of Education Handbell Ringers. She credits her musical involvements as a way to unwind after stressful essays and school work.

"I like to think of those rehearsals as my time-out zones where I cannot do school work anymore. In choir, you can still think about other things while you are singing. But when you're playing handbells, you really can't because it's very intense," said Sawchuk

Sawchuk will be attending the famed Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, England, this fall to continue pursuing her interest in Polar studies.

"It is probably one of the best places to study the North and the South - the Arctic and Antarctic," she said, noting the comprehensive nature of the program.

"I think this will give me a better grounding in my primary subject and more of an interdisciplinary view as well."

A graduating University of Alberta international student has won a national award for the best doctoral thesis in international education.

Education student Edward Shizha, whose doctoral thesis is entitled Indigenous Knowledge and Languages in the Teaching and Learning of Science: a Focus on a Rural Primary School in Zimbabwe, beat out competitors from McGill University, the University of Toronto, and other Canadian universities to capture the Michel Laferriere Award from the Comparative and International Education Society of Canada. The award recognizes outstanding research in the field of comparative and international education. Judging criteria include conceptualization, design and execution, as well as the quality of the written report.

For his thesis, Shizha observed how primary school teachers in Zimbabwe reconcile western scientific knowledge with local indigenous knowledge. What he found was that these two were often treated unequally; indigenous knowledge is deemed "traditional" and "backwards," while western science is revered as "veritably absolute."

Shizha said that the idea of his thesis grew out of his experiences as a teacher in Zimbabwe.

"I have been teaching in Zimbabwe since 1980. When I was teaching in primary school I found that students sometimes had a problem making connections between what they do at home and what they learn in the classroom. There is a distinct gap between local, indigenous knowledge and school science, which is defined as western science," said Shizha.

Aside from the unequal weight of importance given to western knowledge, Shizha also observed a cultural gap between home language and the language of science instruction at school.

"Students have trouble expressing themselves in the classroom because of the language barrier. Due to the education policy, English is used as the medium of instruction. But they also speak Shona and Sindabele at home and are more familiar with that. This makes them hesitant to participate in class discussions," said Shizha.

Shizha suggests that a solution to these problems is to incorporate both English and the indigenous language into teaching. In that case, the teachers can sometimes move away from English to help students better understand what they are learning.

Although it seems surprising that a Zimbabwe native would pick Edmonton, a place that is notorious for its bone-chilling winter, it was actually an easy decision for Shizha to come here.

"I have a friend who was studying in this university, he was taking a masters program here, and he had a very positive impression of the Canadian education system. At the same time, I was looking for a university to do my PhD, so he advised me to come to the U of A," said Shizha.

Shizha said he felt exhilarated and honoured upon learning that he won the award. But aside from highlighting his personal achievement, Shizha said he appreciates this opportunity to draw some positive attention to his native country, Zimbabwe.

"Some people think of Zimbabwe as a backward country and they often focus on the negatives, such as AIDS, drought, and the conflict happening there. Not much has been focused on the positives. So maybe this is a way to highlight that something positive can come out of Africa," Shizha said proudly.