IABC/Toronto offers awards to students to help accelerate their careers and support the next generation of communications professionals.
The IABC/Toronto Bobbie Resnick Student of the Year Award is named in honour of one of the founders of IABC, Bobbie Resnick, as a tribute to her many years of service as a volunteer and mentor.
2020 Grand Prize Package
- A ticket to IABC/Toronto’s 2021 OVATION Awards Gala
- A certificate presentation and recognition at the Gala in front of 250+ Greater Toronto Area communication and PR professionals and social media exposure
- A $250 cash prize
Mubashira Farooqi: A path less traveled to communications
One of the most fascinating things to learn about fellow communicators, is their path to our craft.
In the case of our Student of the Year award recipient Mubashira Farooqi, she originally completed a bachelor’s degrees focusing on the study of health equity until she was inspired by her husband’s course work in Communications at Centennial College.
Mubashira discovered she had an aptitude for communications and saw an opportunity to combine this skill with her passion for advocating for health equity. To hear her speak of the ability for communicators to connect people through the power of story is inspiring. Having worked with underprivileged communities in the past, Mubashira recognizes the importance and value of knowledge translation based on diverse community needs.
Her resume is a remarkable collection of volunteer and paid experience in which she’s driving our profession forward. It’s a collection of experiences that show the impact communicators can have as a bridge between the message and the audience.
Congratulations, Mubashira! With junior communicators like her, our profession is in good hands.
Jagreet Sandhu
IABC/Toronto, Past President
IABC/Toronto’s Bobbie Resnick Student of the Year Award (SOTY)
IABC/Toronto offers awards to students to help accelerate their careers and support the next generation of communications professionals.
Starting in 2017, IABC/Toronto changed the name of the Student of the Year Award to the IABC/Toronto Bobbie Resnick Student of the Year Award.
Bobbie Resnick started her communications career in 1957 in the United States and later moved to Canada. In the corporate world and as an independent consultant, she worked in a variety of communications specialties. She was also a teacher sharing her skills with clients, colleagues and students. Bobbie is now retired and living in Michigan. Renaming the award in her honour is a tribute to her many years of service to IABC/Toronto as a volunteer and mentor.
Previous winners:
- 2019: Shane Madill – Centennial College
- 2018: Jorielle Nunag – Centennial College
- 2017: Bruce Chen – Humber College
- 2016: Arlette Bax – Centennial College
- 2015: Jessica Chong – Centennial College
- 2014: Megan Henry – Centennial College
- 2013: Emily Getz – Seneca College
- 2012: Bethany Curtis (Cawker) – Conestoga College
- 2011: Regis Dudley – Humber College
- 2010: Matthew J. Dudman – Sheridan College
- 2009: Jess Bennett – Seneca College
- 2008: Maricel Dicion – Centennial College
- 2007: Scott MacDonald – Humber College
- 2006: Annette Robertson (Yuen) – Humber College
- 2005: Kathryn McMullan – Humber College
Kay Staib Memorial Scholarship
Please note that this scholarship award is on hold until further notice.
Remembering Kay Staib (1926-1992)
Kay Staib ABC, MC, IABC Fellow, was a force of nature behind IABC/Toronto; a founding member and one of the cornerstones for our achievement in becoming the great, strong and ever-growing organization we are today. Throughout her career, she mentored newcomers and chapter presidents’ alike and set standards of excellence for herself, the profession, and later in her life, her students.
Kay’s commitment to communications was from the heart. She served in a countless number of positions in IABC — locally, in Canada and for the International organization — as well as on the advisory boards of at least two community colleges; as an officer of the Toronto Press Club and the Canadian Association for the Mentally Retarded, and as sponsor and advisor for such other not-for-profit groups as Caravan, Toronto’s annual multicultural celebration in the ’70s and ’80s.
Her contributions to the field and to IABC – in Canada and internationally – earned her more than 80 local, national and international awards, including a Gold Quill. An early proponent of professional accreditation, she was one of the first Canadians to earn the designation.
In return, her efforts were recognized with the highest individual honours: She was twice named Chapter Communicator of the Year, then District Master Communicator, and in 1984, IABC Fellow.
Kay was never too busy to help when she was asked (and sometimes, as she often admitted, even when she was not asked). The word “no” simply was not in her vocabulary.
During her professional career, she initiated innovative and impactful employee communication programs at Eaton’s (where she also broke the gender barrier at the management level) and American Express Canada. Later, after forming her own consultancy, she joined the Humber College Public Relations program; sharing her experience and extending her dedication to excellence to the classroom. Her students were the fortunate recipients of her generous investment in the future of communications and of IABC: she devoted two to three days each week to them, hardly a “part-time” teaching commitment.
A legacy to us all, the standard for excellence that she embraced in every venture is now inherent in the award that IABC/Toronto has established in her memory shortly after her death in 1992; a bursary presented annually to leading students from the diploma corporate communications programs in the Toronto area.