DAWSON CREEK – Haley Bassett, a student at the Dawson Creek Campus of Northern Lights College, is the 2014 recipient of the UNBC Award for Academic Writing.
The award, valued at $500, is presented annually to acknowledge an NLC student whose research paper demonstrates excellence in scholarly writing at a first- or second-year level.
Bassett’s paper – Room to Heal: The Consequences of Stuffing an Aboriginal family into a White Man’s House – was written for her First Nation Studies 100 class, and examined the relationship between traditional Aboriginal parenting techniques and housing, and the consequences on families with the “westernization” of their homes.
“People have told me I am really good at writing, and I definitely enjoy writing,” said Bassett.
Bassett’s paper was selected from 11 entries that had been written originally for various NLC University Arts and Sciences courses including History, English and Early Childhood Education and Care. NLC History instructor Dr. Eva St. Jean was on the selection committee, and congratulated Bassett on a well-written essay.
“Both the language and the title had an evocative mix between beautiful sentences and casual wording, and that’s difficult to achieve,” said St. Jean.
Judging criteria included quality of writing and research, relevancy of research to the topic, original thinking, and critical thought.
NLC offers a variety of first and second-year University Arts and Sciences courses, as well as several certificate and diploma options and seats are available for the September intake. For more information, check the website at nlc.bc.ca, or contact the nearest campus at 1-866-463-6652 and speak to an Admissions Officer.