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[ Noise and Silence ]
>> Our next award on is a graduate and faculty member
of York University, who's gone above and beyond the call
of duty to the school.
I invite you to learn more about Mark Wolcheski [phonetic].
>> Mark Wolcheski: What's kept me here is
that there's been a change every few years, unanticipated
and actually not even sought for really.
But it's always been a new challenge.
It's always been very interesting.
It's always been the kind of work I really want to do.
[ Music ]
>> I had an advisor.
He suggested I work at this camp in Ontario called Camp Tohey,
which was a camp for some kids [inaudible] was eight
to 12 years old at the time.
And I went to that camp,
and that's what sort of got me started.
I couldn't believe these kids who had learning disabilities,
who had been called all kinds of things,
who had some tremendous skills and abilities and talents,
if you knew how to get to them.
So I guess the spark originally started with that group.
Students have a lot more challenges I think
that they're facing.
If you don't provide the appropriate kinds
of accommodations so that you level the playing field,
so the students aren't penalized as a result of their disability,
and they're allowed to demonstrate what they can do.
You've got this untapped resource
that now can really contribute to society,
succeed at university, and do some wonderful things.
If you don't have those services,
and years ago there weren't those services at any
of those universities, very few services,
yeah and those students weren't getting here.
>> Mark Wolcheski is a champion for students.
As one of Canada's foremost experts on supporting students
who have learning, mental health,
and physical disabilities, he has played a pivotal role
in the success of literally thousands of York students.
Beginning in 1985, as the coordinator
of Canada's first post secondary learning disability program,
Mark is currently the executive director of counseling
and disability services, as well as a faculty member
in the psychology department.
His commitment, skills and creativity
in both student services and the classroom continue
to make York a university of opportunity,
where all students can learn and achieve their goals.
>> Mark Wolcheski: Whatever success I achieve is based
on the people around me.
We're very fortunate to have the [inaudible] with the staff
in counseling and disability services.
I'd like to believe that I try and encourage people to be
as successful as they can be.
And I think working together
as a team makes everybody more successful.
Now I was very fortunate to have graduate supervisor [inaudible]
Harold Mindon [phonetic], who actually was the person
who hired me later, to run that program for students
with learning disabilities.
He was fabulous.
I mean, this guy was a real doer, became the head
of the counseling center at that time, hired me, and that really,
you know, propelled me along this path.
Students send me e-mail or they call and they just say,
"you know, I don't know
if you realize how much your service helped."
It's a great moment.
The thing that I feel best about is that a number of years ago,
I put forward a proposal for a transition program
to prepare students
with learning disabilities for university.
It was the only one of its kind, maybe in North America,
but certainly in Canada.
That's helped a lot of students get better prepared to succeed
at university, and what I feel best about is
that now it's virtually every college and university
in Ontario has some kind
of transition programming like that.
What we're trying to do is make sure that it's not just
for students with learning disabilities,
but for all students with disabilities.
So this award, it's kind of humbling to say the least,
because I really think it's a reflection of all the work
that all the people in counseling
and disability services have done for all these years,
and I happen to be heading it at the moment,
but I wouldn't be anything without all those folks.
[ Music ]
[ Clapping ]
>> Ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to present
to you the recipient of the 2012 Bryden Alumni Award
for local hero: Mark Wolcheski.
[ Clapping and music ]
>> Mark Wolcheski: Keep going, okay.
Well, it looks like this is true confessions night,
starting with Chris, so.
Some of you may know I graduated with a Phd in 1980
from York University in Psychology, but in Intro Psych
at McGill University, I got a C. Oh well.
There's nothing more to that except
that just keep going even if you get C's.
It can lead to good things.
So like the other two recipients before me, I'm truly honored
to be among such great fellow Bryden Award winners,
past and present, and to have my name associated
with Bruce Bryden, who is an individual I've learned has
contributed so much in so many ways to York University.
And I also want to thank my colleagues.
Most of them are here who nominated me,
and the York University Alumni Association, in particular,
the Bryden Awards Committee for selecting me as a recipient
for this year's Hero Award.
So I have another couple of confessions.
I'm not Catholic actually,
but I do have some confessions to make.
First of all, as any of you know, I'm sure there are plenty
of days when you're on the job
and we don't particularly feel like we are heroes.
In fact, sometimes we feel quite the opposite,
and it's really important on those occasions
to have the support of someone to help you get
through those situations and keep moving forward.
So I'm going to embarrass my wife, and just let her know
that in my case, she's that person.
[ Clapping ]
>> I won't - to my colleagues here I never breeched any
confidentiality, okay?
I never used names, but she heard plenty of rants,
with unnamed people in the rants, and she in those moments,
kept me going in saying, you know, you'll be okay.
She told me what I needed to hear, like, "you're terrific.
You're right, you're right, you're right."
[Laughter] The second confession I need
to make is although I'm really proud
to get this local hero award, I've been struggling
with that term, local hero ever
since I was told I got this award.
And I've struggled with it mostly because none of the sort
of common definitions - the two most common definitions really
fit me: The first one being a remarkably brave person
who has shown great courage, not so much.
I don't think so.
And the second one being a person with super human powers,
so there's two big problems with that second one.
The first problem is being called a superhero poses an
immediate challenge with your staff, who then expect you
to do superhero type things, which you can't do.
So managing expectations is a big problem
when you're called a superhero.
And the second one, and trust me on this, the image of me
in spandex tights and a cape is not a pretty picture.
Trust me. Actually, when I think about it,
the people who more closely fit the definition
of hero are the many students
over the years who've been clients of our counseling
and disability services.
These students have persevered with their studies in the face
of enormous challenges.
They have had the courage to face obstacles
to higher education head on, and they've been able
to overcome them through determination, creativity,
and hard work in order to meet their academic goals.
Many of those students have had to struggle
with extraordinarily difficult life circumstances,
and in many cases, they are students who have had to deal
with the impact of various types of physical, mental health
and learning disabilities.
As many of you know,
York's institutional admission statement includes the Latin
phrase [foreign phrase].
The way must be tried.
In fact, you heard some of this on the video.
The reason I was initially hired was because my mentor,
the late professor, Harold Mindon, believed that a way had
to be tried to support students with disabilities at York,
and as a result, he secured a grant that allowed him
to hire me to lead a program
that would address the unique learning challenges
of those students.
York is a post secondary institution with a history
of trying new ways to improve access
to post secondary education for students
from non-traditional backgrounds,
and to develop strategies
to help those students be successful.
I'm particularly proud of York's long standing commitment
to social justice and access to higher education.
Okay, I'm going to tell you, I started back in 1985.
I can't believe I'm saying that.
And when I began working there,
it was a three year pilot project to support students
with learning disabilities.
I never imagined that I would continue to work at York
for next 27, yeah, 27 years.
[ Applause ]
>> I think the moral of that story is
if you stay long enough, you'll get an award.
Just stay long enough.
Over the course of all those 27 years, I've been so fortunate
to have been able to work with a team of highly dedicated
and talented professionals in our counseling
and disabilities services who have worked tirelessly
with thousands of students with and without disabilities
to help them achieve their goals.
It's also been a privilege for me to collaborate with so many
of our campus partners, many of them here tonight,
who outside of counseling and disabilities services all
of whom care so deeply about the welfare of York students.
These individuals are too numerous to name
from so many different departments on campus,
but all of them, dedicated
to helping students achieve academic and personal success,
all of them truly worthy of the term local heroes.
I believe this year's Bryden Local Hero Award is an
acknowledgement that the tremendous collective efforts
of staff and students at York University
who have worked together to overcome significant challenges
and to achieve student success.
And I gratefully accept this award on their behalf.
Thank you.
[ Applause and Music ]