Provincial government recognizes Carleton Neuroscience student

Kristina Dunbar, a third-year neuroscience student at Carleton, has won a Leading Women/Leading Girls Building Communities Recognition Program award from the provincial government.

Dunbar was nominated by Carleton’s Student Experience Office and Yasir Naqvi, MPP for Ottawa Centre and the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Education.

 “Kristina is an outstanding example of a Leading Woman in our community,” says Naqvi. “She demonstrates exceptional leadership, serves as a mentor to her peers and works hard to improve the lives of others.”

While at Carleton, Dunbar has been a true leader. For two years, she organized the annual Carleton Serves Day which brings together more than 100 students to participate in various community volunteer experiences. She continued to assist with subsequent service days. “Her positive demeanor and enthusiasm contributed to making it the most successful Carleton Serves event to date,” says Jan Patterson, manager of the Student Experience Office. 

Dunbar was also a team leader and mentor to students in the inaugural First in Family Mentor program launched last year. She inspired other students to participate in a Day of Kindness where she and other students performed random acts of kindness all day on campus.

“Kristina is an inspiration to all those around her,” says Patterson. “She impacts the lives of those she works with as a volunteer, mentor and team leader with her commitment to improving the lives of others in any way she can.  As a science student, she is of particular inspiration to the young women she both coaches and mentors, encouraging them to enter fields that they may not have considered.”

Dunbar has participated in the Alternative Spring Break program where students volunteered their time during the 2011 Reading Week to go to New Orleans and work with Habitat for Humanity to help rebuild homes lost during hurricane Katrina. She also volunteers for the Paul Menton Centre as a note-taker and mentor for students with disabilities, has been a co-curricular record project assistant and acted as a coach for a girls’ soccer team.

Jeremy Brzozowski, the student development and first year experience co-ordinator, co-nominated Dunbar. “I consider Kristina to be an exceptional leader, who consistently devotes herself to her academics and to making the campus community and the world a better place – one action at a time. She balances her academic responsibilities and her various roles at Carleton in a way that is nothing short of admirable. I feel privileged to have crossed paths with Kristina – and I am greatly optimistic of the impact this young lady will continue to have in the future.”

“I couldn’t have done this without the Student Experience Office,” says Dunbar. “The SEO has provided me with numerous opportunities to get involved and really helped me to develop my leadership skills.”

Oh and by the way, Dunbar maintains an A- average.