1st Annual UCU Scholarship Award Gala

Scholarship winners and Scholarship Committee. From left: Inga Bekbudova,
Melanie Drozdowsky, Olana Lovell, Julianna Obal, Natalia Sandul, Peter Lysyk,
Mariana Marta Teslyuk, Scholarship Committee member Walter Kish, Christine Saly,
 Halyna Chumak, Scholarship Committee Chair Andre Sochaniwsky, Ivanna Franko
and Zenon Chwaluk who picked up a Community Leadership Award on behalf
of his daughter Roxolana Chwaluk who was not able to make it to the gala. Not pictured:
Simon Dolega, winner of a UCU Community Leadership Award who was unable to attend.
Image by Jerzy Kukulski ipickart.com

Olenka Harasymowycz was the
MC of the evening

On May 10 Ukrainian Credit Union Limited celebrated the academic achievements of 12 talented students. Every year Ukrainian Credit Union Limited awards scholarships to the most deserving young members of our credit union. In the past we gave these awards out at our AGM. However, since the AGM typically takes place during exam season, this made it difficult for students to be present to receive their scholarships.

This year we decided to announce the awards at our AGM as in previous year, but delay the actual award ceremony to a later date. Thus was born the 1st Annual UCU Scholarship Award Gala!

This year we held the ceremony at Campbell House in downtown Toronto. Olenka Harasymowycz, one of last year's UCU Community Leadership Awardees, was the emcee of the evening. Slawko Boys delivered the keynote speech. He is the newest and youngest member of the Board of Directors at UCU. He was elected to his position at the 69th Annual General Meeting of UCU which took place just two weeks ago. He is also an active member of UNF, currently serving as the President of the Ukrainian National Federation – Toronto Branch as well as a the National Secretary for the UNF Board of Directors and as the Vice-Chair of the UNF Recreation and Education Society.

Slawko Borys, UCU Director and President of
UNF Toronto delivered the keynote address

Slawko Borys spoke about his professional life in the Aviation Industry primarily dealing with Flight Operations, Safety & Risk Management and Regulatory Affairs. Today he is the Director of Safety, Security and Environment for Air Canada’s new airline Air Canada Rouge. In his speech he congratulated the students on their achievements and encouraged them to continue working with and for the community.

After the keynote address, Scholarship Committee members Andre Sochaniwsky and Walter Kish came up to the podium to present the awards. Andre Sochaniwsky is also the new Chair of the UCU Board of Directors.

The first set of awards were the 10 UCU Community Leadership Award bestowed this year. This award is in the amount of $1,000 and is given to qualifying candidates of Ukrainian heritage who are enrolled in a field of study such as political science, business, communication, theology, or international studies and who show above average academic skills. The winners must also demonstrate leadership and community involvement.

We also awarded two scholarships in the sum of $2,500. the Wasyl Sytnyk Memorial Scholarship Award and the Michael Rebryk Memorial Scholarship Award.

We will highlight each of the winners in blog posts over the next few days where you can read a bit about them. In the meantime, you can see lots of photos from the 1st Annual UCU Scholarship Award Gala on our Facebook page.

Congratulations to all the winners! You are all very talented and deserving of praise! Keep reading the blog for more about this year's scholarship winners. And if you didn't apply this year, why not think about it next year? Visit our Scholarship page on our website for more details. The call for application normally goes out in late December, early January and the deadline is the end of February.