StFX student Devon Parris has been named a 2021 3M National Student Fellowship Award recipient—one of only 10 students from across the country to receive the honour.
The fellowship is awarded up to 10 full-time diploma and undergraduate students at Canadian post-secondary institutions who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in their lives, at their post-secondary institution.
These students embrace a vision of education that enhances their academic experience and beyond, the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) says.
"It definitely means a lot to have the opportunity to work alongside the STLHE and the student leaders they are developing. I’m really excited to develop and contribute towards the fantastic projects the STLHE have to offer,” says Mr. Parris, a graduating fourth year honours English major and former varsity athlete from Kingston, ON.
He was also a recipient this past year of one of six inaugural Racial Justice Leadership Grants from StFX’s Frank McKenna Centre for Leadership.
For a full bio, please see:
Devon Parris
Devon is a fourth year student from Kingston, ON, studying English at St. Francis Xavier University. He is a former varsity athlete and one of six inaugural recipients of the Frank Mckenna Centre for Leadership’s inaugural Racial Justice Leadership Grant—a grant designed to support advocacy, outreach, and research projects by BIPOC students in the area of racial justice. Devon’s project is the “Anti-Racist Film Review”—a film review site that analyzes anti-racist discourse within film while critiquing superficial, exploitive, and misrepresentations of contemporary racism. Devon hopes to create a more educated audience for anti-racist film and anti-racist discourse, while also highlighting narratives that portray oppression with nuance and depth. In the last year and a half, Devon has been a guest panelist on the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government’s 2020 Election Panel, involved in planning StFX’s 2022 Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Summit (a conference that spotlights BIPOC academics and students in Atlantic Canada), and also appeared at national and regional undergraduate conferences to discuss anti-racist discourse in film. Following his undergraduate studies, Devon plans to pursue either a master’s degree in critical race theory or attend Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law with the goal of contributing towards racial justice in Canada.
