The 2020 Campus Life Awards were held to recognise the efforts of clubs that wonderfully adapted to changing circumstances with resilience, maintained a strong sense of community throughout the pandemic, and made the most out of every opportunity that came their way.
It's Been a Tough Year award
This award was created this year to celebrate and acknowledge clubs that have gone above and beyond in the year that has been 2020. We know that 2020 has brought challenges like no other year and are proud of the way that many clubs have stepped up to the challenge and continued to support students.
Winner – UC Nursing Society
The UC Nursing Society has remained active throughout the whole year shifting a large number of planned events into virtual events to comply with restrictions. Highlights include the Cafe Chats events which connect academics, professional nurses, and students to provide insight into the profession.
Winner – UC Engineering
The engineering society took the shift to online in their stride barely missing a beat when adapting. They have maintained virtual events throughout the whole year designed to actively engage with members.
Winner – Canberra Law Students’ Society
The Law Society has really picked up their activities this year in a range of portfolios but with the core mission of supporting law students. The law society has advocated for students, run numerous competitions, and created valuable resources for members.
Winner - Minecraft server
UC Engineering Society
UC Student Undergraduate Developers Organisation
Bryce Cronin
On campus event
The On Campus Event of the Year honors clubs or societies making a genuine effort towards enhancing the campus culture and providing a vibrant campus experience for students. The on campus event can be a social or a professional development opportunity for students, all on campus club events are eligible; big or small.
Highly Commended
Canberra Student Pharmacy Association – Awards Night
The CaSPA awards night was held in place of the annual CaSPA ball.
Canberra Law Students Society – SLOTH study Sessions
UC Nursing Society - 30 years of Nursing at UC Ball
UC Recreation and Entertainment Club – Friday Night Games
Winner
UC Vietnamese Student Society – Vietnamese Street Food Festival
In March, UC VSS organised a festival to showcase and introduce a diverse culinary culture from different parts of Vietnam to the Canberra community and international friends.
The event had a variety of stalls providing food, performances of Vietnamese Street music and dance, and a showcase of traditional outfits.
Off Campus Event
The Off Campus Event of the Year is designed to recognize clubs and societies that are willing to step outside the comfort of working with UC Life on campus and are willing to stage physical events off campus.
Highly commended:
Politics International Relations and National Security Society – Lake Cruise
UCOMS – UM Agency trip
Winner – Information Technology Students Association
KPMG industry tour
This event gave members a view of consultancy, technology implementation, risk management and quality assurance providing insight into what these areas are. Students were given a scenario which was about Risk management and were told how that case study could be managed giving real practical experience. KPMG is one of the biggest consulting firms in Australia so this was a very valuable event for ITSA members.
Best physical product
The best physical product award recognizes a club that has taken its branding to the next level or created a unique item for students.
Highly commended:
UC Engineering Society - Cyber truck Keyring
UC Nursing Society – Nursing graduate hoodie
Social Activities Club – First year Survival Guide
Winner - Canberra Law Students’ Society
Competitions Handbook
Law competitions can be tricky for students to get their heads around. This year the Canberra Law Students’ Society created a guide to help students navigate the complexities of competitions. It gave students at UC the necessary knowledge needed to effectively compete in internal competitions so they can gain practice and experience for larger competitions.
UC Community Engagement Award
The community service award is to honour a club that has contributed to the UC community or has strived to improve connections within the UC community. Community Engagement can be demonstrated in a variety of ways, including clubs volunteering time towards multiple UC events or projects, Orientation Week, Open Day, faculty-led initiatives, or even other club events.
Highly Commended – UCOMMS
UCOMMS has engaged the UC community by holding scavenger hunts, trivia nights, webinars, and launching a YouTube channel and Tik Tok.
Winner – UC Nursing Society
The Nursing Society has been hugely active in the community this year. They have participated in: Walk for autism, Closing the Gap virtual walk, Virtual market day, Wear it Purple day, R U OK day, DVCS high tea, Deafness awareness week, UC breast cancer awareness morning tea, Mental health check-ins, and Party Pals event for differently abled children. They have also used different awareness days for community outreach via virtual platforms.
In addition to this they have provided direct support for students in the form of donations of goodie bags with personal items, donations to UCX Food Pantry, Mental health outreach, virtual catch-ups, liaising with staff, and students when transferring onto online learning.
Club Upstart
The Club Upstart Award is a long-running award to recognize the best new club this year. The club must have affiliated for its first time in 2020 and made a genuine contribution to campus culture this year.
Highly Commended – UC Public Health Society
The Public Health Society commenced at the end of 2019 and has been active over the last year. With their advocacy of student issues, bushwalks and unique merch of hand sanitisers; we are excited to see what this club gets up to next.
Winner – UC Dramatic Arts Club
The UC Dramatic Arts Club started in February 2020 with a vision to provide a space for all students to express themselves. Since then they have built a strong committee and membership base and implemented weekly drama workshops and dance classes. Going into a virtual campus made it hard for the club but they have come back this semester with many on campus events and are even planning a showcase for stress-less week.
Unsung Hero
The Unsung Hero Award is to acknowledge individuals who may not hold a leadership position within their club, but have made a positive impact on the club or society. These are the people who can make a huge impact on leaders and members in the club without realising or asking for acknowledgement.
Highly Commended
Daisy Azmi – UCNS
Daisy has organised numerous events to support nursing students at UC including the Dr Sarah Cope Memorial Lecture, Café Chats speaker series, first aid sessions, and additional education sessions during COVID to cover the gap in teaching.
Joao Romano – UCOMMS
Joao is the UCOMMS Graphic Designer. His dedication and contribution to the club has been very visible this year as the club rebranded and shifted to virtual.
Winner – Chrystale Langford
Chrystale, as a representative of UCNS and individually, has arranged and made donations to the UCX Food Pantry, the broader community, and elderly homes during COVID; sometimes traveling around at midnight to do non-contact drop-offs. She travelled around giving out warm meals, drinks, and soap/hand sanitiser to homeless people.
Chrystale started a support group 'In this together' for parents and carers of people with disabilities in order to connect. She is the founder of 'Party Pals' and holds events for children with disabilities and their families. This has been going for 4 years.
President of the Year
The President of the Year award has been established to recognize an outstanding individual who embraces the mission of their club while challenging its executive committee and members to advance new initiatives, acquire new skills, encourage engagement at all levels within the UC community, and promotes an environment that inspires others to think outside the box. This can only be achieved if this individual shows great leadership qualities and commitment that spearheads the club and lays the foundations for ongoing success.
Highly Commended
Megan Rose – UCOMMS
Megan goes above and beyond the expectations of a club president. She puts UCOMMS at the top of her priorities and is passionate about making sure the club benefits all members and supports them on their communications career development.
Natasha Correia – Canberra Law Students Society
Natasha has lead the CLSS into a new era in an extremely unprecedented time. Under her leadership, she has raised the CLSS profile in Canberra and across Australia. in 2020, the CLSS has truly embodied what it means to be a student representative body, thanks to Natasha's passionate and determined leadership style.
Bryce Cronin – UC Engineering Society
Over the past year, Bryce has made it his mission to engage science and technology students and push them to be more involved with the club landscape at the University of Canberra. As president of the UC Engineering Society Bryce has continued to be the main driving force behind the organisation of weekly events and inclusive large-scale projects.
Elise Webb – UC Nursing Society
Elise has been a strong advocate during the peak of COVID, wanting to give back to the community and members of the society by organising virtual yoga and cafe chats, goodie bag drop offs and so much more.
Winner – Edward Hinch - PIRaNaS
Before his term even began as president he had to step and up and take on the role of president. He then served a year as president and has been extremely dedicated to the society. It’s said he can work the word 'PIRaNaS' into almost every conversation and has amazing relationships with industry professionals and teaching staff alike. This has helped PIRaNaS to become a club that is recognised by some of Australia's largest think tanks and organisations.
Lion Club person of the year
The Lion Club Person of the Year is awarded to a member of the campus community who stands out as having made the most outstanding contribution to their club, the university, and the broader community over the course of the year that is above and beyond what is expected of them. This can be any executive committee or club member from the UC Community.
Highly Commended
Chrystale Langford
As already mentioned Chrystale has made huge contributions to the UC Nursing Society and Canberra community this year.
Edward Hinch
Ed has not only been a big part of PIRaNaS this year but has been a big part of the UC Community.
Winner – Elise Webb
Elise has been a determined and supportive president throughout her entire term from July 2019 to 2020. She is dedicated to improving the experience of undergrad nursing students at UC and has been advocating on their behalf since 2018. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, Elise was positive and adaptable, she changed most of UCNS's planned events of 2020 to be online and motivated the UCNS committee to continue to connect and support nursing students.
Elise helped to organize and run UCNS events such as Cafe Chats, Virtual Yoga with Meredith, and International Nurses and Midwives week. Elise has assisted other committee members with organising their own events such as first aid and CPR sessions, sport Fridays, New Grad Q&A, nursing pinning ceremony, trivia sessions, and market days. She did this on top of studying her final year of nursing at a full-time study load, and attending clinical placements.
Elise worked with faculty nursing teachers to arrange graduate hoodies for our final year students, this has provided final year students a way to unite and celebrate their achievements despite the challenges of COVID.
Cultural Club of the year
Highly Commended – UC Vietnamese Student Society
The UC Vietnamese Student Society were very successful in creating online events to continue to engage students when the campus transitioned to virtual.
Winner – UC Japan Club
The UC Japan Club has been a strong club in 2020 contributed weekly events both online and on campus as restrictions allowed. To continue to engage their members during COVID, the club created a Discord server which has been very successful and keeps members active within the club. The Japan club also runs regular language and cultural classes, grammar and conversational classes and cooking workshops.
Social Club of the year
Winner – UC Rotaract Club
The UC Rotaract Club has been very active this year holding regular meetings as well as professional development, volunteering, and social events. They have managed to maintain online engagement with members throughout the COVID restrictions with online meetings, weekly cook offs and watch parties. The club also promotes health messages and initiatives to members to encourage them to stay healthy and active together.
Academic Club of the year
Highly Commended
UCOMMS
UCOMMS has faced the challenge of COVID-19 head-on and come up with innovative solutions. The club rebranded at the beginning of the year bringing a fresh new look to the society which is sure to catch students' eye.
UC Engineering Society
This year the UC Engineering Society has continued to run weekly events, both in-person and virtual events when Covid-19 restrictions came into place.
Winner – UC Nursing Society
With 2020 being the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, the UCNS planned a full year of activities and celebrations. When COVID-19 restrictions came into effect these plans had to quickly change. The executive committee frequently take it upon themselves to reach out to students to check in and see how they are travelling and offer support.
Some of the biggest achievements that the UCNS has made this year have been the donation to the bush fire drive, Walk for autism, assisting with the disability support organisation 'Party pals', World's greatest shave, Closing the gap walk, Salvation Army winter drive, raising awareness for multiple different areas of health.
The club has truly lived up to their motto of: Lead, Learn, Grow, Connect
