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Convocation

2025 convocation medals awarded to five FASS graduands

June 10, 2025

A big congratulations to our five Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) graduands who have been honoured with a convocation medal in recognition of their outstanding academic achievements and contributions to society, the university and the wider community.

We are incredibly proud of our convocation medallists for their outstanding achievements and are confident they will go on to accomplish great things in the future. 

Lieutenant Governor鈥檚 Medal for Inclusion, Democracy and Reconciliation

Awarded to an outstanding undergraduate student in any faculty who has completed the requirements for a Bachelor鈥檚 degree and/or a Certificate or a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma and has demonstrated academic excellence and outstanding contributions in support/promotion of one or more of the following areas: (1) inclusion, (2) democracy and/or (3) reconciliation, on campus or in their communities.

Kaitlyn Cunningham

BA, Linguistics and Indigenous Languages

Kaitlyn Cunningham graduates with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Indigenous Languages. As program navigator for the h蓹n虛q虛蓹min虛蓹m虛 Indigenous Languages Program cohort at SFU, she strives to support safe spaces for fellow Indigenous students. She also works with the x史蓹lm蓹x史q蓹n Cultural Society to preserve and promote the h蓹n虛q虛蓹min虛蓹m虛 language. She owes her academic achievements and success to all those who continue to support her on her journey鈥攈er sisters, nieces, parents, partner and daughter, friends, classmates, instructors and especially her Mentors, Elders and Matriarchs. She is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Indigenous Languages and Linguistics at SFU.

Read more about Kaitlyn

Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation Medal

Recognizes graduate students from each faculty who has achieved the highest level of academic excellence in his or her graduate program.

Dasha Gluhareva

PhD, Linguistics

Dr. Daria (Dasha) Gluhareva completed her PhD in Linguistics with research that introduced a novel, real-time method to study how second language speakers assess their own English speech. This research challenged existing assumptions and revealed that speech assessment is a dynamic process that changes moment to moment. During her time at SFU, she taught a wide range of linguistics courses as a sessional instructor and enjoyed supporting undergraduate learning. She is currently a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Kassel in Germany, where she trains future English teachers and continues her research in applied linguistics.

Read more about Dasha

Sarah Law

MA, Sociology

Sarah Law studied subjects of the Financial Independence and Retiring Early (FIRE) self-help movement. She developed a theory of hardening to describe how late capitalist life is embodied as an urgent and virtuous drive to steel the self through hard work. She argues that this desire to harden works to maintain colonial, racial and gendered relations of power and conceal cold structures of domination. Sarah achieved a 4.25 CGPA, is a recipient of the Dean鈥檚 Convocation Medal, was a SSHRC recipient and received multiple awards in recognition of her dedication to social justice organizing, community engagement and research.

Read more about Sarah

Dean's Undergraduate Convocation Medal

Recognizes undergraduate students in each faculty whose cumulative grade point average places them in the top five per cent of their class.

Mayuko Arai 

BA (Hons.) Psychology

During her degree, Mayuko Arai examined the effects of an antidepressant on sleep as a potential intervention for Alzheimer's disease under the mentorship of Dr. Brianne Kent. She also received the Undergraduate Student Research Award, Psychology Alumni Honours Award and the CPA鈥檚 Certificate of Academic Excellence, and delivered a symposium talk at the Canadian Neuroscience Meeting. Her work has been published in鈥疭leep Advances鈥痑nd SFU鈥檚鈥疷ndergraduate Journal of Psychology. Currently pursuing a neuroscience PhD in California, she hopes to one day return to 51社区黑料and give back to the community.

Read more about Mayuko

Taylor Ivan

BA (Hons.), Philosophy

Taylor Ivan graduates with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Philosophy. At SFU, she became a FASS Dean's Undergraduate Fellow, received six scholarships and was an executive member of the Philosophy Student Union. Her honours thesis focused on the disappearance of alchemy leading up to the eighteenth century. She presented her research at the Philosophy of Science Association conference in 2024 and the FASS Undergraduate Research Symposium in 2025. She looks forward to starting her PhD in Philosophy at Yale this September. 

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