Sarah Odinotski was named the winner in the Young Adult Category of the Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest Rogers Women of Year Awards for 2022. The awards ceremony was started in 1975 to recognize and pay tribute to outstanding women in the Kitchener-Waterloo community. The objective of the award is to recognize the value of women’s paid and unpaid work, amplify women’s voices, celebrate their achievements, and demonstrate that women have the ability to be resilient in these challenging and uncertain times.
Jennifer Campbell Youth Scholarship
The Young Adult Category of the Women of the Year Award also comes with the Jennifer Campbell Youth Scholarship. Cambell, who died last year of cancer, was a local radio personality who hosted the Rogers Women of the Year Award for many years. She was also closely involved with the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region and Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region.
For Sarah, this connection has deep meaning,
To be presented with this award in memory of Jennifer Campbell is very encouraging to me, as she lived such an inspirational life. Jennifer was known by many for her strength, passion, and fearlessness to speak the truth. She used her platform to lead by example in building the community, encouraging and inspiring others, and spreading joy.
Inspiration
Odinotski found great success in the nanotechnology engineering program at the University of Waterloo. Her fourth-year design project team placed second in the Capstone Design Competition and went on to win $10,000 in the Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards for its biomedical device. Odinotski was also voted 2021 Co-op student of the year for the Faculty of Engineering. After graduating this spring, she has continued her research by working on a hydrogel microneedle biosensor. She has also completed a research paper that has been accepted for revision by a scientific journal. As a female engineering student, Odinotski has at times felt the lack of representation for women in engineering. This is another reason that winning this award was important to her,
Learning about the brilliant and creative ways that the nominees have contributed to the Waterloo-Kitchener community showed me the passion and dedication these women have for fostering positive change in their respective sectors. I think it’s important to acknowledge and celebrate these achievements because it provides women with a safe space to share their stories – giving testimony to the joys and the struggles of what it means to be a woman in their field.
Future plans
Excited to start her master's degree at the University of Waterloo, Odinotski's focus will be on developing a single avalanche diode for monitoring the success of cancer treatments. Congratulations to Sarah for being one of Waterloo Region’s Women of the Year!