As Director of Student Services from 1996 to 2022, Mary Brubaker-Zehr encouraged students to live into the “Spirit of Grebel” by discovering their gifts and engaging broadly community life at the College. Every year she encouraged students to thrive by getting involved in a variety of formal leadership roles or simply by participating in things like Taste of Grebel, Orientation Week activities, Chapel services, service trips, clubs, and more.
Before she became a pillar in Grebel’s administrative team, Mary was first a student at Grebel, where she attained an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Recreation and minor in Music from the University of Waterloo in 1985. Mary considers her choice to make Grebel home was one of her best life decisions. She lived in residence for three years, was a first-year rep on Student Council, was a residence don, and joined the Chapel Committee. She also met her husband Scott at Grebel, and they went on to have three children who also all lived at Grebel.
Mary and her family established an endowment to fund an annual award to honour students who live into this Grebel spirit. Students do not apply for this award. Each year, Student Services staff will make a selection and present the award to the students at a term-end banquet.
About the Award
The Spirit of Grebel Award supports students enrolled in the residence program at the Grebel. It honours and rewards a student(s) who has lived into the ‘spirit’ of the residential program in an exemplary way.
The fund may finance up to two Spirit of Grebel Awards in any given academic year. The award should not be less than $1,000 and may be given in addition to awards previously allocated.
This award is given to (in order of priority):
- Students who are holding an upcoming one-term contract for a residence or apartment space,
- In the rare occasion, and if there are no returning residential or apartment candidates who meet the criteria, an active future off-campus associate may be considered.
- Students who have demonstrated the spirit of Grebel by involving themselves either as a participant or formal leader, in a breadth of ways that reflect the Student Services mission statement. Such things may include, but are not limited to:
- Weekly Wednesday chapels and /or other Chapel sponsored events,
- Student Council and Larger Leadership sponsored activities and events,
- Student Services sponsored initiatives (i.e. symposiums, Reading Week trips)
- Grebel courses (if the student has elective space),
- Engaging with faculty and staff around the lunch tables and beyond,
- Initiating a unique or notable Grebel activity or event for the College, in response to a local or global community need,
- Volunteering inside and outside of the College.
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Students who have been a role model for other students and have demonstrated exceptional community spirit.
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Students who show potential and heart for continuing this spirit of involvement.
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Students who are in good or excellent academic standing with the University of Waterloo, WLU, or Conestoga College.