Two Memorial students, Zaren Healey White in the Faculty of Arts and Stephanie Power in the Faculty of Human Kinetics and Recreation have been announced as winners of SASA’s (Student Affairs and Services Association) national Student Leadership Award.

According to Kim Kelly, Experiential Learning Coordinator, this is the first time for several years that two students from the same institution have been recognized with this outstanding distinction.

“I am delighted that Steph and Zaren have been selected as co–recipients of the 2009 SASA Student Leadership Award. It is certainly an honour for Memorial to have two of our finest student leaders receive acknowledgement on the national stage,” said Ms. Kelly. “While they have made the most out of Memorial by becoming engaged in their unique creative ways, they have both stood up and took note of the needs of people, community and environment.

"It is a great privilege to have the opportunity to work with outstanding students like Zaren and Steph. They are one of the reasons why I love at Memorial - an institution that encourages and supports opportunities for student engagement and leadership.”  

Originally from Conception Bay South, Zaren Healey White is a multi-tasker extraordinaire who is currently employed full time as coordinator of the Student Volunteer Bureau while handling a complete course load as an English Honours student. She also works several hours per week as the copy editor of the Muse, for which she also writes movie reviews and an environmental column, and is an active volunteer with several associations including the Terra Nova Sea Cadets.

While at Memorial, Zaren has appeared several times on the Faculty of Arts’ Dean’s List, has been profiled as an Amazing Student, worked for Athletics for two years as Sammy the Sea-Hawk, and served as coordinator of the volunteers for Orientation, a role she is reprising for Fall 2009. 

Zaren is planning to pursue graduate studies in English after graduating next May.

“My ambition is to be a crazy, eccentric and colourful professor who’s nice and scary at the same time,” she said.

Stephanie Power is a graduating student in the Faculty of Human Kinetics and Recreation with an honours co-operative degree in Kinesiology. Stephanie has been involved in many different activities around Memorial, St. John's, and internationally during her time at Memorial. These include two years on the MUN Students' Union Executive, different positions on the Human Kinetics and Recreation Society, and various student leadership initiatives, such as Leader Forum, I love MUNdays and Residence Life.

She has been involved in the In-School Mentoring Program at Rennie's River Elementary, was a founding member of the Nova Scotia Student Society, and a group leader and clinic instructor at the Running Room and a participant in the St. John's Royal Regatta.

Through a work term, she volunteered in Costa Rica, and through Engineers Without Borders MUN, where she is currently Student Chapter President, she went to Ghana for a four month volunteer development internship. Stephanie has held many scholarships for leadership during her undergraduate studies and recently was named Memorial Student Volunteer of the Year. She plans to continue in Graduate Studies at Memorial in Kinesiology.

"Making time in my life to be involved in many different areas has given me the opportunity to meet incredible people and experience personal growth I never thought I had the potential for,” said Stephanie. “Being recognized in this way is an incredible honour. I want to spend my life working with and for others, and in the last five years, my involvement here at MUN has really helped me begin that.”

The award will be presented at CACUSS 2009, the annual Canadian Association of College and University Students Services conference, which will take place June 14 to 17 in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont.