Arctica Cunningham and Sukhpreet Buttar will be the 2018 valedictorians at the University of Northern British Columbia.
Cunningham grew up in Telkwa and ever since she stepped foot onto UNBC’s campus in the Fall of 2013 as a first-year undergraduate student , she honed her leadership, student government and community service skills and made an impact on UNBC’s community.
Cunningham is graduating with her Bachelor of Arts degree with a joint major in Environmental Studies and Political Science and a minor in Global Studies. She volunteered with various student clubs and societies (Debate, Political Science, Students for a Green University) and organizations (Prince George Public Interest Research Group) and causes and connected with undergraduate students from across all disciplines.
Cunningham first served as the academic representative on the Northern Undergraduate Student Society representing student interests at UNBC meetings and then in April 2016 was elected president. She was responsible for all internal and external relations, financial management and budgeting processes and navigated the student union through some challenging times.
In her fifth year, she sat on UNBC’s Board of Governors as an elected undergraduate student representative.
Cunningham chose to study at UNBC because it is known as Canada’s Green University and she wanted to get into the environmental field. She was also impressed by all the student initiatives at the University, including the University Farmers’ Market, the compost program and saw many opportunities to get involved.
“When I saw that UNBC offered a joint major in Environmental Studies and Political Science, I felt like all my interests were coming together, and I knew I that I had found the perfect school,” she said. “It is impossible to pick just one thing that I enjoyed the most, but I would say the campus culture in general is incredible, with so many events and activities happening all the time.
“Students have so many opportunities to share their passions and it is easy to get involved with new things.”
Cunningham believes that most of her fellow graduates agree that university has been hard and they have all grown immensely in the process.
“But at the end what I’m sure I’ll remember most are all of the moments I have shared with the people I have spent my time with. I will especially miss the student organizations I was involved with such as the Debate Society, and I learned so much from my experiences in roles with student government. ”
Cunningham will give her valedictorian speech at the College of Arts, Social and Health Sciences Convocation ceremony at 9:30 a.m. on May 25 at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre.
“It is an incredible honour to be chosen as UNBC’s valedictorian,” she said. “During my time here I have had the opportunity to interact with so many other amazing students so I’m truly grateful that they have selected me to represent the graduating class.”
Cunningham is currently working as the executive director for PGPIRG, an environmental non-profit group. It’s a position that allows her to apply a lot of knowledge she learned as an undergraduate student.
She completed an undergraduate thesis in her fifth year that focused on food security issues in communities along Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert and how those issues relate to larger patterns of safety issues, inadequate transportation and marginalization.
She plans on continuing her education, pursuing a Master’s degree.
–Submitted by the UNBC.