College of the North Atlantic-Qatar (CNA-Q) hosted its 10th Annual Rewarding Excellence Awards ceremony, recognising 85 students for exceptional performance during the 2011-2012 academic year.Dr Ken MacLeod, president, CNA-Q, was joined by Dr Latifa al-Houty, vice-chair of CNA-Q’s executive committee, Ahmed Ali al-Mowlawi, director of administration, Qatar Petroleum, representatives of industry, faculty and family members.“Since 2002, CNA-Q has been educating the leaders of tomorrow,” said Dr MacLeod while explaining that to date, over 2,000 students have graduated.The ceremony saw students from each of CNA-Q’s programme areas honoured for academic achievement and acknowledged for leadership within the college and community.
In addition to Honour Society Awards, this year also marks a record number of scholarships being granted to winning students, including the Highest Achiever Scholarship, EFL Awards from CNA-Canada, CNA-Q School Scholarships, Merit Awards, Student Representative Council Scholarships, the Glen Cameron Memorial Scholarship and ExxonMobil Qatar scholarships. Presented by Dr al-Houty, the CNA-Q Scholarship for Highest Achiever was awarded to Dana al-Hajri, student of the Business Administration – accounting programme, who concluded the 2011-2012 academic year with a weighted average of 97.03% and has maintained perfect 4.0 grade point average since enrolling in 2010 – an accomplishment that qualifies her for membership in the CNA-Q Honour Society. Her impressive academic performance – while carrying a full course load every semester – includes grades of 100% in 13 courses, including Mathematics of Finance, Managerial Accounting, Qatari Business Law and Microeconomics. In keeping with the college’s 10th anniversary in Doha, a new award was announced. The Decade of Excellence Scholarship was awarded to the top 10 Qatari academic achievers.“Everybody should be proud of what has been achieved today,” said Dr al-Houty, who presented the new scholarships. Ali al-Haidous, director of Business Support at Qatar Foundation and alumnus of CNA-Q, spoke about his time at CNA-Q as a high point of his professional and personal life.Speaking on behalf of the honoured students, Cindy Fernandes, winner of an ExxonMobil Scholarship and sole recipient of the CNA-Q Leadership Award, spoke about the importance of CNA-Q students and to the State of Qatar.