Eve’s awards recognize leadership learners and teachers at RRU

Eve Martin has lived an eclectic life, both educationally and professionally. She was a science teacher who also earned a master’s in counselling psychology. She was a counsellor in a medical clinic who went on to study leadership, own a travel business and manage her family’s investment portfolio.

But through the twists and turns of her life, one thing stuck out: her time in the inaugural class of Royal Roads University’s Master of Arts in Leadership, which launched in 1996.

That’s why, 25 years after she graduated from the program in 1998, she made a generous donation to RRU to create an endowed fund for two awards that are being handed out for the first time this year: 

• Eve’s Global Leadership Learner Award recognizes Master of Arts in Global Leadership students who have made outstanding contributions to the learning journey of fellow classmates. The 2023 recipient is Lynn Weaver, who was nominated by her cohort for her efforts at connection, communication and supporting bonding throughout her time with them and through a variety of activities.
• Eve’s Global Leadership Teaching Award is a recognition by students of an individual on the Master of Arts in Global Leadership instructing team who has made an outstanding contribution to their education. The inaugural recipient is Rebeccah Nelems, who has 18 years of experience as a dynamic educator of blended, technology-enabled, experiential and learner-centred curriculums in academic, professional and organizational settings.

Martin says reading about the importance of becoming a good ancestor led her to reflect and remember what was the good in the program during her time at RRU.

The cohort was important, she says, because of the wide range of ages among her fellow students as well as their varied backgrounds, which allowed them to both learn from their talented instructors as well as among one another — “some of the best teaching you’ll have,” she notes.

“It’s inevitable that everyone touches everyone else,” she explains. “And you cannot know what you said, what you did, how it’s impacted others. It could’ve been a simple conversation, it could’ve been a presentation, it could’ve been anything that leaves a legacy behind.”

While Martin says her cohort’s motto was “Living our learning,” her own motto for endowing the awards that bear her name is “Learn, lead and leave a legacy.”

She encourages other RRU alumni to reflect on what was meaningful to them about their time at the university and look for ways to leave their own legacies — and to help the students who are following in their footsteps.

Build your skills with the Master of Arts in Leadership or Master of Arts in Global Leadership, or learn more about giving at RRU.