Celebrating Our Students: Convocation and Student Awards
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Spring Convocation
Spring 2026 Convocation ceremonies for economics graduates were held on June 17, with four MABE students and 153 Bachelors and Honours graduates in Economics crossing the stage. The group included the first graduate from our new Honours Economics and Data Analytics program, Thu An Le Nguyen.
Student Achievements and Awards, 2025-26
Earlier, the Department of Economics faculty, students, and staff gathered for our annual Economics Student Appreciation event, where we recognize the achievements of our students over the past year.
Economics Department Awards
Professor Emeritus Alastair Robertson and Marnie Robertson attended to present the award in Dr. Robertson’s name to Suraj Rakesh. The Alastair Robertson Scholarship in Economics is granted to the full-time undergraduate student with the highest average in second and third year core macroeconomics courses.
Suraj also received this year’s Economical Insurance Group Scholarship Fund and the Dr Morton Nelson Prize for Intermediate Accounting, and in 2023-24 was awarded the Ralph Blackmore Award. He is in the fourth year of his Economics and Accounting degree.
Econ Department Awards | ||
Award | 2024-25 | 2025-26 |
Alastair Robertson Scholarship | Lana El-Masry | Suraj Rakesh |
Braden Story Memorial Award |
| Noelle Gray |
Frank and Elsie Millerd Award in Economics | Miraide Palmer | Ziab Ziab |
Jennifer Anne Whybrow (nee Robinson) Memorial Award | Daria Stadnikova | Daria Stadnikova |
Max Lowenstein Scholarship Fund | Jacob Nevins | Noah Pulo |
Ralph Blackmore Award | Daria Stadnikova | William Renner |
Dr John Weir Economics Award of Distinction |
| Cameron Lau Abdulrahman Mourad |
John R Finlay Memorial Scholarship |
| Wenying Gao Abdulrahman Mourad |
* For several awards, winners can only be determined after the end of the Winter term.
Other University Awards to Economics students
Economics students also picked up a number of awards that are open to all Wilfrid Laurier students.
Other Awards | |
Award | 2025-26 |
The Economical Insurance Group Scholarship Fund | Suraj Rakesh |
The Dr Morton Nelson Prize for Intermediate Accounting | Noelle Gray |
Christopher Griffin Athletics Award | Matthew Andree Tristan Greenidge Ventsislav Shingarov |
Jennifer Anne Whybrow (née Robinson) Memorial Award | Daria Stadnikova |
Westpoint Sport Scholarship | Jeremy Rudnick |
The Golden Boar Award of Excellence | Liban Abdalla |
Ernst and Young In-Course Scholarship | Amarichi Okpalugo |
Mike Belanger Residence Life Award | Amarichi Okpalugo |
CIBC Leaders in Entrepreneurship Award | Miyuru Ranaweera Arachige |
Dr Richard Playle Award in Canadian Studies | Anna Koziol |
Gotthard Booth Award | Jenny Qu |
Joyal Twins Award | Naaz Habibi |
Kitchener Sports Association Intramural Award | Zakariye Abdi |
Waterloo Wellington CPA Ontario Association Award | Yisak Chanako |
Dr Richard Playle Award in Canadian Studies | Anna Koziol |
Chair’s Award
This year for the first time, we added a departmental award determined by the Chair of the Department. This award is decided by the Chair of the Department, and goes to a student who has made a valuable contribution to the life of the department over the course of the year. This year, the Department Chair, Christine Neill, awarded the prize to MABE student Alex Schwarze. Alex served on Department Council, where he was always willing to provide input, and on the Chair Search Committee. He was always willing to pitch in and help when asked – including at a marathon sorting of recruitment postcards – and helped to keep his fellow students engaged in university events, including cricket and career and networking evenings.
Peter Sinclair Awards
The following winners of the Peter Sinclair Awards for undergraduate research:
Winner: Noelle Gray, “The Long Shadow of War: Historical Conflict Exposure and Institutional Trust in OECD Countries”
Noelle graduated in Spring, and will be starting her JD at Osgoode Law School in September.
Runners Up: Neil Whiteside, “Beyond Macroeconomic Variables: The Predictive Power of Credit Spreads in Recession Forecasting” and Carter Richards, “Nuclear Power: The Future of Clean Energy?”
Winner: Kyle Arndt, “Canadian Monetary Policy with Demand and Supply-Driven Inflation”.
Kyle was also a co-winner of the Canadian Economics Association/Bank of Canada Best Poster prize for undergraduate research.
Runners Up: Aishleen Bassi “From Likes to Purchases: Measuring the Economic Impact of Online Engagement in Canada” and Colton Phillips “Designing the Race Card: Empirical Evidence of Wagering Drivers at Woodbine Racetrack”
Winner: Neil Gawri. In his paper “Operation Murambatsvina and the Collapse of Public Trust: A Causal Analysis of Institutional and Economic Perceptions in Zimbabwe”
Neil has just completed his Graduate Diploma in Accounting, and recently returned to Laurier to help guide students in the Economics of Evaluation class in producing an infographic.
Runner up: Erica McCracken, “The effect of economic policy uncertainty on the volatility of Canadian commodity markets”
Honourable mention: Mariya Khoroshun, “The Post-USSR Extractive Curse: Regional Inequality and Development in Kazakhstan”
SMITH Competition
This is the third year the department has run an economics prediction competition, the Students Mastering Intriguing Testable Hypotheses (SMITH) Competition.
The objective of this year’s competition was to predict end of season winning percentage by team in the NHL using information available at the beginning of a season. Professional sports provide a natural laboratory for economic analysis. NHL teams operate under budget constraints, face uncertainty, and must make forward-looking decisions using imperfect information. Using only information available before the season begins, participants were asked to forecast team performance. The goal was not to explain past outcomes, but to make accurate predictions under uncertainty, applying core economic ideas. The methods used here mirror those economists use to forecast employment, productivity, and growth in real-world settings.
Student teams whose models did best at the prediction challenge won a cash prize, and the coveted “Smitty” award – a bust of the competition founder, Justin Smith.
The winning teams and students in each of the year levels were:
Year 2 - The Three Musketeers - Arianna Graham Laufer, Simrit Grewal, Isaac Slavens
Year 3 - OLS on Ice - Arushi Khattar, Rayyan Ali
Year 4 - Marginal Revolutionaries - Daniel Buczakowski, Christopher McGee, Charlie Thorpe
Graduate - Net Elasticity - Joonas Roose, Alex Schwarze, Talbot Carrie
Bank of Canada Governor’s Challenge Team
Finally, we were also able to congratulate our 2025-26 Bank of Canada Governor’s Challenge team: Oscar Brown, Tighe Chivers, Aaliyah Karimi, Tim Lusignan, Chris McGee, Mya Muschette, Emily Myatt and Fraser Small. The team put in a great effort but unfortunately just missed out on made it to the finals in Ottawa.
Congratulations to all the students who received awards for their dedication and involvement in the Laurier community. And thank you to event organizers Justin Smith, Patrycja Gadomski-Cebo and Parker Nicholls for their work in bringing everyone together at what is a busy time of year for everyone.
