Graduating during a pandemic sharpens Kiera McMaster's focus

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

She is the type of student who is not easily forgotten, wrote her nominator. The positive impact that new graduate Kiera McMaster leaves on her peers and wider community was recently recognized when she won the Faculty of Arts Award for Excellence in Service.

Kiera McMaster speaker to another student at event
Kiera McMaster at a project showcase at the Stratford School for Interaction Design and Business. Photo credit: Viran Kohli.

McMaster is one of a few undergraduate students to have won the Arts Award, an annual initiative to recognize excellence in faculty, staff and students. Graduating this week with a Bachelor of Global Business and Digital Arts (GBDA), based at the Stratford School, she stands out as engaged and community-minded; she combines her skills and knowledge with a strong instinct to observe her social environment, see where help is needed, and do something about it.

This is especially evident in the social enterprise McMaster initiated during her third year. The Resource Bin program assists the GBDA student community with everyday essentials such as food and hygiene products, that some cannot easily afford. “Students in Waterloo have access to the WUSA food bank,” she says, “but in Stratford, we were missing an equivalent.” [...]

Read the full article in Waterloo Stories.