The Jaye Fredrickson Award for Teaching Excellence is the highest teaching award offered at NorQuest College. The peer-nominated award upholds our mission and values by honouring teaching excellence.
Award recipients must demonstrate a record of professional competence in teaching exemplified by:
- engaging learners through exemplary facilitation
- supporting learners through advocacy
- using innovative pedagogical approaches
- developing learning-centred curriculum materials
- employing fair evaluation
- demonstrating scholarship
Named for NorQuest College’s former Vice President, Academic, the Jaye Fredrickson Award for Teaching Excellence was established to honour the legacy of teaching excellence that Fredrickson inspired. It honours an individual who engages learners through exemplary facilitation, supports them through advocacy and utilizes innovative approaches to education.
2023 recipient: Jasmine Guanlao-Sagun
Jasmine Guanlao-Sagun is an instructor in the Practical Nurse Diploma for Internationally Educated Nurses (PNDIEN) program with 15 years of teaching experience and extensive nursing expertise. She is passionate about ensuring that nurses are confident and well-prepared for Canada’s health institutions. That drive to support her students on their journey resulted in her nomination for NorQuest’s top teaching award.
Jasmine most enjoys the continual learning aspect of teaching, engaging with internationally educated nurses and learning about the cultural nuances of the profession. “There is so much that I have learned from them about culture, about how nursing is fundamentally the same, and yet very different.”
Jasmine is inspired by her own parents’ story as immigrants who struggled when they first came to Canada. A colleague of her father’s recognized his skills and supported him to begin a career here. Jasmine aspires to be that person for her students as they make their way into the Canadian workforce.
“I could be that person for someone. I could change their lives, their children’s lives. That’s what motivates me.”
Jasmine sets the bar high for her students, and the result is nurses who feel confident and prepared when they go out into their practice.
Past winners
2022 recipient
Allison Fieldberg
2021 recipient
Dana Wight
2020 recipient
Clara Bergen
2019 recipient
Karen (Cara) Taylor
2018 recipient
Jason Fahy
2017 recipient
Carla Grant
2016 recipient
Kim Goebel
2015 recipient
Amy Abe
2014 recipient
Shanna Rowney
2013 recipient
Tracy Topolnitsky
2012 recipient