Celebrating achievements in the George Brown College community

Students

Centre for Arts, Design and Information Technology

Fashion Management student Hazel Ycasiano won two awards in the Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF) case study challenge, a $7,500 US scholarship and a $10,000 US Neiman Marcus Group x FSF Scholarship. She was invited to the 2023 FSF Awards Gala in New York City, attended by American Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.

Centre for Business

The team of postgrad human resources students, including Melissa Burton, Christina Theocharidis, Claire Kearns, Melanie Facchini, and Aaron Kuo, placed third at the 2023 HRPA Student Case Competition. 

ATHLETICS 

Badminton  

Mixed doubles pair Sarthak Arora and Monique Lee won OCAA gold with an undefeated 7-0 record, securing their spot at the CCAA National Championship. 
 
On the national stage, the pair went undefeated in the round robin on way to a CCAA silver medal and helped Team Ontario claim the team gold. 

Men’s basketball 

The Huskies men’s basketball team won silver at the Ontario College Athletic Association (OCAA) finals and earned a spot to compete at the nationals for the third time in the last six seasons. 

ALUMNI

Fashion Techniques and Design graduate Lesley Hampton is the recipient of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business 2023 Young Entrepreneur Award. 

COLLEGE-WIDE  

George Brown College was named one of Greater Toronto’s Top Employers (2023). 

George Brown College Guiding Elder Pauline Shirt is appointed to the Order of Ontario.

Students 

Apprenticeship & Skilled Trades 

Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning program students Owen Buckley and Ryan Sutherland won gold and silver respectively at a student heating systems competition at the Canadian Mechanical and Plumbing Exposition. 

Business 

A team of students from the Analytics for Business Decision-Making program won the 2022 SAS Safe Roads competition. 

• Kate Armstrong
• Christopher Caballero
• Kieran Anson-Cartwright
• Rofelyna King
• Karlee White

Global Goals Jam

Tanvir Singh Ahuja and Melric Rego were on the team of four that won Global Goals Jam Canada 2022, March 18-20. The competition challenges students, entrepreneurs and changemakers to develop solutions based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as Global Goals, as outlined by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 

Employees

Chef David Wolfman, a longtime instructor at the Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts, won a 2022 Indspire Award in the Arts category.

College-wide  

• George Brown College was named one of Greater Toronto’s Top Employers (2022). 
• Limberlost Place receives the Excellence in Design Innovation Award from the Waterfront Design Review Panel.

Students 

George Brown teams won the Top Overall Solution and Most Innovative Solution honours at the health care solutions hackathon, Glackathon 2021. 

Top UHN Solution and Top Overall Solution  
6ix Health (All students from the Health Informatics program)  

• Maha Zeb  
• Morgan Kaneshakumar  
• Chanpreet Litt  
• Sharanya Kanakaratnam  

Most Innovative Solution   
JARS (3 of 4 members George Brown students)  

• Sagar Varia (Information Systems Business Analyst program)   
• Amandeep Thakur (Health Informatics program)  
• Rebecca Crawford (Health Informatics program) 

Athletics 

The Huskies men’s soccer team won silver at the OCAA provincial championships and advanced to the nationals. The team's 2021 effort ended with a loss to Nomades de Montmorency in the bronze semifinals.  

Alumni 

Chef School graduate DeAille Tam was named Asia’s Top Female Chef, 2021. 

Employee achievements 

Faculty member Michael John Long received the 2021 Award of Excellence for Outstanding Post-Secondary Educator from the Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication for his work with the student-led Sustainability Squad. 

College-wide  

• George Brown College ranked among the top 10 Canadian research colleges. 
• George Brown College was voted best college in NOW Magazine’s 2021 Readers’ Choice Awards. 
• George Brown College was named one of Greater Toronto’s Top Employers (2022). 

Student achievements

Fashion awards

Four students from the School of Fashion Studies won scholarships from the Manhattan-based YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF).

Silvia Canovas Closa, Jillian Siu and Madeline Soubry each won US$5,000 scholarships and Barbara De Souza Pinheiro Nobre took home a $7,500 award. They travelled to New York City to attend a gala awards celebration in January. 

Construction awards 

For the second time in three years, a team of George Brown College students won the Chartered Institute of Building’s Global Student Challenge. 

Jonathan Isenegger, Philip Jager, Kristopher Turnbull-Poulin, and Maxim Sokolicz, together known as Team DGC Toronto, beat out students from Australia, China, Indonesia and Scotland. 

Design awards 

George Brown students and graduates earned top-three finishes in each of the categories at the 2020 Ubisoft Toronto Next Challenge. 

• First place, animation category, Bruno Sampaio Leme Dias, Graduate 2020, Game – Art 
• Third place, animation category, Thedrick John Lancaon, Graduate 2020, Game – Art 
• Second place, 3D art category, Acie Suralta, student, Game – Art program 
• Second place, level design category, Kyle Richardson, Graduate 2018, Game – Art 
• Third place, level design category, Julian Disterheft, Graduate 2019, Game Design, Graduate 2018, Game Programming 

Athletics

• The George Brown Huskies captured their first national championship when Huyen Le won the gold medal in Women's Singles at the CCAA National Badminton Championships in March.
• In March the men’s basketball team made history after capturing the OCAA (Ontario Collegiate Athletics Association) championship for the first time in 44 years. The Huskies defeated the Humber Hawks 78-65.

College-wide

George Brown College is named one of Greater Toronto’s Top Employers.

The design for our mass-timber building at Waterfront Campus, The Arbour, continues to win awards, including:

• 2019 - AZ Award (Azure Magazine) —winner and People's Choice, Unbuilt Buildings category
• 2019 - MIPIM/Architectural Review Future Project Award — Sustainability Prize

Student achievements

Fashion awards

Five students from our School of Fashion and Jewellery won US$5,000 YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund awards based on their strong academic performance and on case studies they developed and presented.

The 2019 YMA FSF award winners are:

• Milica Djukanovic
• Samantha Macri
• Courtney Mancuso
• Fabio Mikai
• Kelsey Nowlan

Construction awards

George Brown College students dominated at the Construction Institute of Canada’s 2019 Simulated Student Bid competition, sweeping three of the four categories.

Most Professional Category

1. 2020 General Contractors Inc. (Jessica Yolanda Vazquez Saldana, Angelee Weathers, Jason Pereira, Luisa Alzate Osorno)
2. Dash Design Build (Hani Esmail, Duc Anh Ngo, Suferdi Laij, Andre Cespedes)
3. U3J Construction ltd (Tianbai Wang, Udaygiri Gauswami, Jiadai Li, Jimmy Huynh)

Most Accurate and Complete Category

1. ML&SK Contractors (Matthew Marotta, Troy Zboch-Lawson, Georgy Sheer, Nikola Kopcalic)
2. Dash Design Build (Hani Esmail, Duc Anh Ngo, Suferdi aij, Andre Cespedes)
3. JEMM Construction Ltd. (Michael Marasigan, Justin Porzio, Elton Levani, Mohammed Abu-Hamileh)

Closest to Target Category 

1. ML&SK Contractors (Matthew Marotta, Troy Zboch-Lawson, Georgy Sheer, Nikola Kopcalic)
2. Terra Group Bilal Shaker, Seok Won Choi,Dionis Koci, Leslie Hamilton)
3. 2020 General Contractors Inc. (Jessica Yolanda Vazquez Saldana, Angelee Weathers, Jason Pereira, Luisa Alzate Osorno)

Design awards

Game Art student Jacob Lafortune won first place in the animation category in the Ubisoft NEXT competition in May.

Business awards

Prema Chandran, Erica Valentine and Matthew Liu, all students from the School of Accounting and Finance, won the 2019 CIFP (Canadian Institute of Financial Planners) National Financial Planning Case Competition on June 3, 2019.

Skills Canada 

Refrigeration student Connor Lexovsky won a silver medal at the Skills Canada National Competition in Halifax in May.

Athletics

George Brown College teams took home OCAA (Ontario Collegiate Athletics Association) championships in:

• Men’s indoor soccer
• Women’s badminton (Ann Hoang)
• Mixed doubles badminton (Mike Ra and Angeline Alviar)

Three George Brown athletes— Anh Hoang and the mixed doubles pair Mike Ra and Angeline Alviar— took home silver medals at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) badminton nationals.

College-wide

• George Brown College is named one of Greater Toronto’s Top Employers.
• The design for our mass-timber building, The Arbour, won awards, including:

  -Rethinking the Future, Architecture, Construction and Design Award — Institutional Concept
  -2018 – Canadian Architect Award of Excellence

• Our Human Resources diploma programs at the Centre for Business won a 2018 Canadian HR Reporter Readers' Choice Award.

Alumni

• Three grads of our Bachelor of Technology (Construction Management) program won the UK-based Chartered Institute of Building's (CIOB) Global Student Challenge. Doan (Lucas) Dang, Nick Lourenco, and Mike Lino beat out 53 other teams to win the top spot.

Athletics

For the first time in George Brown College history, both our women’s and men’s badminton teams won the provincial titles. They followed that up with a best-ever performance at the nationals, earning an incredible four medals, one in each discipline George Brown had a team entered.

• Ace Zeng: OCAA Male Badminton Player of the Year, CCAA All-Canadian, CCAA National Men's Singles Silver Medallist, OCAA Provincial Men's Singles Gold Medallist, OCAA All-Star
• Anh Hoang: CCAA National Women's Singles Silver Medallist, OCAA Provincial Women's Singles Gold Medallist, OCAA All-Star
• Angeline Alviar: CCAA National Women's Doubles Bronze Medallist, OCAA Provincial Women's Doubles Silver Medallist, OCAA All-Star
• Yunji Kim: CCAA National Women's Doubles Bronze Medallist, OCAA Provincial Women's Doubles Silver Medallist, OCAA All-Star
• Mike Ra: CCAA National Mixed Doubles Bronze Medallist, OCAA Provincial Mixed Doubles Silver Medallist, OCAA All-Star
• Amy Ding: CCAA National Mixed Doubles Bronze Medallist, OCAA Provincial Mixed Doubles Silver Medallist, OCAA All-Star
• Alex Chao: OCAA Provincial Men's Doubles Bronze Medallist
• Yang Jin: OCAA Provincial Men's Doubles Bronze Medallist

Read more at athletics.georgebrown.ca.

College-wide

• President Anne Sado receives the Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICAN) Presidents' Leadership Network Distinguished Service award.
• George Brown College is named a gold recipient of CICAN's Internationalization Excellence award.

Alumni

• Natasha Falle, a graduate of our Assaulted Women's and Children's Advocate/Counsellor program, won a Premier's Award in the Community Services category.

Athletics

• The men's basketball team makes it to the Canadian Collegiate Athletics Association (CCAA) championships for the first time in 41 years. The Huskies completed the 2016/17 season as the seventh-ranked team in Canada.
• George Brown's Ajahmo Clarke is named a CCAA All Canadian and an Ontario Collegiate Athletics Association (OCAA) First Team All-Star. He became the OCAA's all-time leading scorer, finishing his regular season with a career 1,922 points.

College-wide

• George Brown College earns the fifth spot on the Sustainable Campus Index top 10 list.
• George Brown College is named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers for 2017.
• The George Brown College Foundation wins two awards for a fundraising video called A Letter Home, featuring international students sharing their experiences in Canada. The video wins the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education Prix D'Excellence Bronze Medal for Best Fundraising Materials and the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts Gold Award of Excellence – Branded Content in the non-profit category.

Alumni

• Vicky Cheng, a Chef School graduate who is now the executive chef of VEA in Hong Kong, receives a Michelin star.
• Four graduates of our Theatre Arts program, Marjorie Chan, Aviva Armour Ostroff, Jamie McRoberts and Nathan Carroll, win Dora Mavor Moore awards.

Employees

• Lori Cranson, Associate Dean of the Centre for Community Services and Early Childhood and the Centre for Health Sciences, wins the John and Suanne Roueche Excellence Award for her work with George Brown's Student Success Team.