Convocation, Students

2015 FASS Convocation Speakers

June 09, 2015

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Chardaye Bueckert, BA, June 10, 2:30 p.m.

Chardaye Bueckert channelled her passion for making positive social change into student leadership, serving as a student senator and in several executive positions with the Simon Fraser Student Society, most recently as president. She also headed the Society of Arts and Social Sciences and served as vice-president, finance for the SFU Debate Society. Earlier this year she was awarded the 2015 Robert C. Brown Award for outstanding academic achievement and leadership at SFU. Bueckert has been accepted into the 2016 B.C. Legislative Internship Program, after which she plans to pursue graduate studies in political science. Her goal is to become an elected official and work to improve the lives of Canadians.

Gloria Mellesmoen, BA, June 11, 9:45 a.m.

In pursuing a degree in English and linguistics, Gloria Mellesmoen used linguistic analysis to explore her love for medieval and post-modern literature. Outside of class, she held executive positions in the Linguistics Student Union, the English Student Union, and the Society of Arts and Social Sciences. She also served as the education faculty’s representative on the Simon Fraser Student Society board of directors. Presenting at the 2015 Northwest Linguistics Conference and working in SFU's Applied Phonetics Lab solidified her interest in exploring the world through research. This September, Gloria will begin a master’s in linguistics at the University of Toronto.

Ali Al-Samak, BA, June 11, 2:30 p.m.

While Ali Al-Samak enrolled as an applied sciences student, his first introduction to the SFU campus was an inadvertent orientation tour through the criminology department, which piqued his interest in the topic. He switched majors, and last semester completed an honours thesis investigating Muslim people’s confidence in the Canadian criminal justice system. This summer, he plans to volunteer in the office of an immigration lawyer, and hopes to attend law school next fall. “I want to do something that will contribute to the community,” says Al-Samak, who volunteers off-campus with Muslim Youth in Motion, a non-profit organization that empowers youth.