2025 UCalgary Nursing Spark Awards to honour outstanding nursing champions

For over a decade, UCalgary Nursing has been celebrating nursing champions in its community with an awards program that culminates in a ceremony held every year during National Nursing Week in May. 

Nominations are still open for the UCalgary Nursing Spark Awards, previously known as the Faculty of Nursing Pursuit of Excellence Awards. The recognition program started in 2010 with a generous donation from Covenant Health and were aptly named the Covenant Health Faculty of Nursing Recognition Awards.  

"As a brand-new clinical instructor, being nominated and then winning the award for Impactful Education: Teaching by two of my students meant an enormous deal to me,” says Sondra Wesner, Faculty of Nursing sessional instructor and PhD student who received the 2024 Impactful Education Teaching Award last year. 

“It helped me gain much-needed confidence that my approach to teaching was beneficial to my students, and it helped me make the decision to continue to pursue nursing education as a career path. I learnt so much from my students about nursing and what it means to work collaboratively with my students as an educator.  

“Winning the award helped me understand the importance of recognizing and celebrating other nurses and staff for their work within the nursing profession."  

While the awards presentation takes place May 13, 2025, nominations are now open until March 14. The nine different nominated categories are:  

• Impactful Education: Undergraduate Student 
• Impactful Education: Graduate Student 
• Impactful Education: Teaching 
• Enhancing Community: Alumnus 
• Enhancing Community: Community Partner 
• Enhancing Community: Staff 
• Transformative Leadership: Research 
• Transformative Leadership: Mentorship 
• Transformative Leadership: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 

An Ignitor Award (formerly the committee’s choice award) may also be given out and is selected by the awards working group. Since the UCalgary Nursing Spark Awards represent a shift from the other iterations - the Pursuit of Excellence and Covenant Health Faculty of Nursing Awards - previous recipients in similar categories may be nominated again.