Durham College (DC) is proud to share that it has received two CICan Awards of Excellence in recognition of best practices from institutions across the country, as well as individual leadership and achievements, from Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan).  

Presented during the association’s annual conference on April 30 in Victoria, B.C., Naqi Hyder, a second-year Paralegal student and officer and transitional manager with Durham College Students Inc. (DCSI), was recognized with the gold award for Leadership Excellence for Students. Amit Maraj, a professor with the School of Business, IT & Management, and principal investigator for numerous applied research projects, received the silver award for Leadership Excellence for Faculty.

Naqi has always been community focused, and after coming to DC, he put his efforts towards helping students access and enjoy the best college experience possible. As a first-year student, he began working as a peer coach with the Access and Support Centre, where he assisted students to help them achieve their personal and academic goals. After seeing the difference he was making, and feeling confident in his ability to maintain his academics while working on campus, Naqi started looking for his next challenge. He was chosen to be part of the team of three that was tasked with developing the new student government to represent college students. The result is the DCSI, a service-based association that puts students’ needs at the forefront, and provides quality campus engagement for every student.

A natural-born leader, Amit is at the forefront of technological advancement at DC, with a specific focus on artificial intelligence (AI). He has a proven record of accomplishment of teaching and research achievements unmatched by most so early in their post-secondary career. Extremely passionate about exposing students to emerging technologies in a hands-on learning environment, Amit has developed innovative workshops and boot camps to encourage students to gain knowledge and fundamental technology skills – with a specific focus on AI concepts – outside of the classroom setting. While providing guidance and mentorship to students in the Computer Programmer Analyst program, he continues to pursue his personal post-secondary goals, and will graduate with a Master of Computer Science from UOIT in spring 2018.

Congratulations Naqi and Amit on your well-deserved awards.