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“Ann is a compelling example of leadership and is a role model for our students who seek ways to connect their passion to a vocational calling,” said President Marcus Shantz. “For her entire career, Ann has represented Grebel’s ideals. Her contribution to the church and to the spiritual, intellectual, and musical growth of teenagers is significant. For this reason, we are pleased to award Ann Grebel’s 2021 Distinguished Alumni Service Award.”

This year, Grebel officially joined Sustainable Waterloo Region’s Regional Sustainability Initiative. As a member, Grebel will share and learn best practices with other like-minded organizations. Members work to understand the impacts of their operations on environmental sustainability and aim to build a culture of sustainability among employees and engage employees as sustainability advocates while also adapting policy and reducing impact through realistic sustainability targets. 

For most students, Grebel is a place where friendships are forged, passions are engaged, and where dreams grow. It’s heartbreaking when, for various reasons, dreams are dashed and lights are extinguished.

When Karen Sunabacka was 3 years old, her Métis grandmother gave her a book titled Riel’s People: How the Métis Lived by Maria Campbell. Karen always knew she was Metis.

On October 5, Grebel celebrated the launch of Dress in Mediterranean Antiquity: Greeks, Romans, Jews, Christians co-edited by Grebel Prof Alicia J. Batten and Kelly Olson.

As families arrived for Conrad Grebel University College’s Move-In Day over the Labour Day weekend, joy was visible in student eyes, even as masks hid their smiles. With three waves of move-in times for new students during the day, there was space to safely welcome students, assure parents, and get everyone settled in dorm rooms.

In 2019, Canada’s parliament designated the second week of September as Mennonite Heritage Week, granting special recognition to Mennonite resilience, cultural production, and peacemaking efforts. The designation encourages deeper public appreciation of Mennonite contributions to “building Canadian society.” This call comes alongside increasing acknowledgment among some Mennonites of all that past and current participation in nation-building has entailed - prominently, white settlers’ involvement in the state’s varied colonialist projects targeting Indigenous peoples. This year, we mark Mennonite Heritage Week by drawing attention to an upcoming conference, to be held at Conrad Grebel University College in May 2022, that invites reflection on these parts of Mennonite history, in Canada and in other contexts.

For complete information on the University of Waterloo's response to COVID-19, visit UWaterloo's Coronavirus website.

As the start of the fall 2021 school year approaches, Grebel is welcoming students, faculty, and staff back to campus. With a near-normal presence on campus, staff and faculty aim to be available to students by arranged meeting. Grebel is offering a mix of online and in-person courses with spacing and capacity limits for in-person classes.

This past June, scholars, practitioners, support workers, health care experts, and interested parties from across the globe gathered together virtually over the course of three weeks to advance the connections between spiritual practice and the effects of aging at the ninth International Conference on Aging and spirituality. Many health care support workers and religious/spiritual practitioners recognize the benefits to a broader approach of spiritual needs among all aging individuals and communities beyond end of life care, and recognize the diverse experiences of elder care around the world. The conference connected researchers with practitioners in a way that fosters community and advances this important intersection of care.

“I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to be an effective leader,” shared Katrina Steckle. “It takes incredible organization, commitment, and energy, but it also takes kindness and empathy.” Katrina has just graduated with a Psychology and English Literature and Rhetoric double major with a History minor at the University of Waterloo. She was a resident and later and associate at Conrad Grebel University College.