{"id":25659,"date":"2024-08-07T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T16:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=25659"},"modified":"2024-09-03T15:46:51","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T22:46:51","slug":"and-the-award-goes-to-alums-recognized-for-their-post-camosun-achievements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/08\/07\/and-the-award-goes-to-alums-recognized-for-their-post-camosun-achievements\/","title":{"rendered":"And the award goes to… Alums recognized for their post-Camosun achievements"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kayleigh McDonald takes home Promising Alumni Award<\/strong><\/p>\n

AJ Aiken, senior writer<\/p>\n

Kayleigh McDonald hasn\u2019t got to where she is today by sitting still. McDonald\u2014the 2024 recipient of Camosun\u2019s Promising Alumni Award\u2014graduated from the college in 2019 with a bachelor\u2019s in Business Administration with a marketing major. She also obtained a certificate in Business Administration and diploma in Marketing while at Camosun. As if that wasn\u2019t enough, while studying she started Prismatic Creative Co. as a side business and turned it into a full-time job.<\/p>\n

\u201cCamosun was really great because I got to work hands-on with clients for some projects in some of my third- and fourth-year courses,\u201d says McDonald, \u201cwhich was really beneficial to being able to start my own business and understand how to work with a client right off the bat from having done it in projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kayleigh McDonald was recently recognized for outstanding contributions to her community (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Promising Alumni Award recognizes exceptional alumni who graduated in the last 10 years and have demonstrated a real commitment to others through community service and career accomplishments. Being the recipient of the award has been an exciting achievement for McDonald.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really, really fun and exciting because… not working for a company myself, and I\u2019m working for myself, I don\u2019t necessarily receive those types of accolades where you could maybe get that in a bigger company,\u201d she says. \u201cSo, having an accolade from the post-secondary institution has been really great in helping further my expertise in the areas that I was in, the field that I\u2019m in, and just productions that I\u2019ve put a lot of time and dedication into learning, and being the best that I can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Projects were a big part of what made studying marketing at Camosun enjoyable for McDonald; helping clients get their products into new places while using strategies from class made the course fun. She also liked hearing about the instructors\u2019 experiences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[I] really enjoyed hearing where they came from and what they were able to achieve with their knowledge,\u201d says McDonald.<\/p>\n

One instructor that McDonald found inspiring for her career was Cynthia Wrate, who is also chair of Business. McDonald\u2019s success in business is no surprise to Wrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had energy, drive, curiosity, worked really well with other people, but wasn\u2019t afraid at all to ask about things,\u201d says Wrate. \u201cShe would ask questions. She would delve into topics. She just really wanted to know, and she had a passion for design; she had a passion for advertising promotions, level marketing, communication side of things. But she also had a really strong numbers capability; so, an appreciation for what it would take to run a business. I was very pleased and not surprised to see how well she had done post-graduation. I mean, she\u2019s really built up quite an impressive business in the course of five years since she\u2019s graduated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Succeeding in business has its challenges and rewards. McDonald says that the biggest challenge, and one that she\u2019ll continue to face as she grows her business, is not knowing if she\u2019ll succeed or fail. However, the reward is seeing what she has accomplished for her clients and the goals she\u2019s reached. Looking back on how far she\u2019s come is what keeps driving her forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for Camosun students today, if they\u2019re struggling to figure out if they want to work for a company or if they want to try and start their own business, [my advice] is to not be scared of the unknown,\u201d says McDonald. \u201cBecause going into anything with kind of fear or any sort of hesitation can lead to a downfall quite quickly, but embracing change and embracing fear [is] a way to work towards becoming bigger and better in your professional career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Education in her field hasn\u2019t ended for McDonald; she continues to strive to improve her skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest thing that has helped me after going to Camosun has been continuing education and always trying to learn and better myself so that I can be offering the best for my clients,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

McDonald also recommends taking advantage of networking opportunities that Camosun offers. She says that although it can be intimidating, sometimes seem scary, or maybe feel unnecessary, it\u2019s a vital part of making valuable connections within the business community.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially in the business program, they do give you opportunities to do networking, and that\u2019s one of the things that I wish I had have done while I was in Camosun, was do more networking events and learn while I was younger because it makes it less scary when you\u2019re older to go to networking events and put yourself out there for your business,\u201d she says. \u201cSo, take advantage of the opportunities that the college and that your instructors provide you that are outside of regular class hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lesley Stav takes home Distinguished Alumni Award<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mackenzie Gibson, senior writer<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Camosun College\u2019s Distinguished Alumni Award went to Red Seal chef Lesley Stav. Graduating from the Culinary program in 1988, Stav had no prior experience in any professional kitchen. In fact, Stav\u2019s first career was about as far from a kitchen as possible\u2014she was a long-haul truck driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was one of the first women in Canada that actually got her air brakes and her licensing, and this would have been back in the mid-\u201970s,\u201d says Stav. \u201cI drove a truck for a little over 10 years. And then my doctor said to me, \u2018You need to stop doing this, because [you\u2019re] a very small person, and your body is giving up on you\u2019… I thought, well, I\u2019ve been working with exclusively men my whole working career at that point, but I thought it would be interesting to work with women, and that tells you how little I knew about the kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lesley Stav was recently recognized for contributions to her field as a graduate from over 10 years ago (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the sudden change in environment, Stav found that cooking brought out a whole new side of her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI come from a very creative family. But I don\u2019t sing, I don\u2019t dance, I don\u2019t paint, none of those things,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I just kind of figured I was the one that missed all those things. And then I got to school, and I started to cook. To me, it was a perfect medium because there are a certain number of rules that you have to follow, which I liked, but then there was so much more creativity that you could do once you knew what the rules were. And that\u2019s the part that I really shone at and really loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within those rules, there are infinite possibilities, and Stav was eager to explore every one of them. That\u2019s what has maintained this love for so long.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that I can do it differently every time, it doesn\u2019t ever have to be the same. There\u2019s always something more you can learn with it. There\u2019s another layer you can make to it, you can do it in a different style,\u201d she says. \u201cEven if you take something as simple as noodles, I mean, how many millions of ways can you cook noodles and serve them… And that\u2019s it. It never gets old, it never gets tired, because there\u2019s always a different way of looking at something.\u201c<\/p>\n

With Stav\u2019s longstanding career beginning at Camosun, she\u2019s excited to be recognized by the institution where her skills first took root. And she\u2019s also quite pleased about breaking new ground by receiving the award.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to have that acknowledgment. It is nice to have it from a place that you originally just started from. It\u2019s always nice to be able to go back to something like that and say, \u2018Hey, I did it. I made it.\u2019 But I would say, equally strong, in my mind, is the fact that this is the first time that anybody from the culinary trade has received this award. And to me, that\u2019s even more important because then it shows other people that, yes, you can be in this industry for that long, you can survive. Because people hear all the bad things about it. But there are a lot of good things, and you can really make it work and make it successful as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Stav is being honoured for her skills as a chef, that\u2019s not all that got her the award. Over her years in a variety of kitchens, she\u2019s gained a reputation for being a guiding light to the next generation of chefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started to be that person that would be called in and say, Oh, well, if you want something done, you know, call Lesley, or if you need to make connections, phone Lesley… I now walk into rooms and I see the people that want more. And I always say that, you know, I can open the doors for you, but you\u2019re the one that\u2019s going to do the work. You\u2019re the one walking through, but I can make the connections for you. Because that\u2019s what people have done for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for Stav, the award is a reminder of what she learned at the college.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that I told my instructors when I left Camosun is that I thanked them for giving me a set of tools to work with, because it will always be there whether or not I chose to stay in the cooking industry,\u201d she says. \u201cI would not ever lose what they had taught me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kayleigh McDonald takes home Promising Alumni Award AJ Aiken, senior writer Kayleigh McDonald hasn\u2019t got to where she is today by sitting still. McDonald\u2014the 2024 recipient of Camosun\u2019s Promising Alumni Award\u2014graduated from the college in 2019 with a bachelor\u2019s in Business Administration with a marketing major. She also obtained a certificate in Business Administration and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25680,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,315],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-august-7-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25662,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25659\/revisions\/25662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}