ATHENAS LIVE HERE
Local awards, scholarships recognize women in community
Living embodiments of the Greek goddess Athena are working, studying, volunteering and leading in the city of Windsor.
Respected as the patron goddess of heroic endeavour, wisdom, justice, inspiration, skill and strength, Athena was commended for her compassion and generosity. Modern-day Athenas also possess those qualities and share them with their community.
Believing these heroes in our midst should be recognized and encouraged, Loretta Stoyka was inspired in 1995 upon hearing about ATHENA Awards bestowed on women in the United States. She met with the awards committee in Ann Arbor, Michigan to learn more.
Soon afterward, “I put it on the table” to fellow directors at a Windsor-essex Regional Chamber of Commerce meeting, Stoyka recalls. “I said this is an amazing opportunity to highlight the women in our community who have done so well under adverse conditions. Twice the old boys voted it down.”
Undeterred, Stoyka then invited Martha Mertz of the Ann Arbor contingent to present the initiative. The men voted it in.
Windsor broke ground as the first city in Canada to present the ATHENA Leadership Award in 1996. It honours both women and men, recognizing them for business and professional excellence, community service, mentoring and providing a role model to encourage women to achieve their leadership potential.
In 1999, “I saw there were ATHENA scholarships for women who wanted to go back to school in the U.S. I thought that was all well and good, but I wanted to shine the light on younger women in our community to give them a lift,” Stoyka says.
With the support of the chamber, the ATHENA Scholarship Program was created to benefit full-time post-secondary students between the ages of 18 and 30 years old with a local connection.
Initially, $1,000 cheques were presented to three recipients annually. Today, each scholarship is $5,000. Applicants must be enrolled full-time in college or university and demonstrate academic excellence, community involvement and engagement in leadership activities, as well as help other women reach their potential. Every year, scholarships are earmarked for one St. Clair College student, one University of Windsor student and one student with a Windsor-essex County connection who is attending any college or university.
Donations from private citizens, corporations, professions, academic institutions and community organizations make the scholarships possible.
A four-year contribution from Stoyka's son in 2019 is funding a special annual scholarship for a University of Windsor Faculty of Law student. Timed for the ATHENA scholarship's 20th anniversary event, Matt Stoyka sent a pre-recorded video message announcing the surprise gift, made in his mother's honour.
“I went back to school after I had my children and graduated from law school when I was 40,” says Stoyka who was overwhelmed during the announcement. “I couldn't get up from my chair when I saw Matt's video.”
The 2020 ATHENA Leadership Award presentation, scheduled to be showcased at the chamber's annual Business Excellence Awards Gala, was postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Appreciating students' need to pay tuition, the scholarship committee didn't delay in inviting the 2020 recipients to meet physically distanced outside last summer for a cheque presentation.
Sierra Scott-kilgo recently received her Diploma of Business Administration-finance at St. Clair College. She served as the 2019-2020 president of Enactus St. Clair College whose mission is to solve community issues through social entrepreneurship. Scott-kilgo is also active with the Women of Windsor Mentorship Collaborative.
Paige Coyne is a University of Windsor kinesiology PHD candidate helping female students build confidence and positive self-image through her involvement in the Girls in Motion event, Healthy Kids Community Challenge and Windsor's Fitspirit Celebration.
Celina Debiasio is a 2017 University of Windsor graduate with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree and recently completed her second year in the Doctor of Medicine program at the University of Ottawa. One of the ways she serves the community is as co-founder and co-leader of the Ottawa Chapter of the Studentsenior Isolation Prevention Partnership to reduce social isolation of Ottawa seniors.
Tara Chan, a University of British Columbia Bachelor of Arts Degree graduate, has completed her combined Law and MBA degree at the Faculty of Law, University of Windsor. She volunteers as a litigator with Community Legal Aid and as a deputy divisional superintendent with St. John Ambulance.
Chan walked from the University of Windsor to meet the ATHENA committee at an outdoor downtown bistro. After lunch, she politely declined an offer of a ride back to school and began striding straight to the bank to deposit her affirming cheque.
Although the committee is comprised of accomplished people, “when we lunch with the recipients, we look at each other and ask what we were doing at 23 years of age?” Stoyka says. “Past ATHENA scholarship recipients have become doctors, lawyers and accountants and done extremely well in business. One started her own charitable foundation. The scholarship gives them that extra feeling of wow, I can do this.”
Submissions for the 2021 scholarships are being accepted to April 30 and the judges' selections will be announced this summer.
Much energy and finger-crossing have gone into the organizing of the 25th ATHENA Award, to be celebrated at the Windsor-essex Regional Chamber of Commerce's Business Excellence Awards Gala on Nov. 18, 2021. Tickets are being sold for online and onsite guests. For safety, only 300 guests attending in person will be permitted in St. Clair College's 800-seat banquet room.
Everyone will be able to congratulate Marlene Corey, the 2020-21 ATHENA Leadership Award winner, at the upcoming gala. A committed volunteer and Cogeco Your TV producer and director, Corey has mentored and showcased many women. Thankful for assistance others have given her, she believes, “when you help others, you also get so many benefits yourself.”
Stoyka agrees. After the ATHENA committee convinced the reluctant woman to receive the ATHENA Leadership Award in 2015, Stoyka understood what it means to know your community values your efforts.
Looking back to the early 1990s, Stoyka remembers being one of only two women on the chamber's board of directors. The current board is led by female chair Mila Lucio and the female directors outnumber the males.
The ATHENA team is “grateful for the ongoing support of the chamber, local donors and private sponsors,” Stoyka says. “We're very lucky the community has embraced our awards and scholarships.”
“Besides being a mother and having had a successful law practice, ATHENA is the best thing that I've ever accomplished,” Stoyka shares. “It's so uplifting to honour people who deserve it.”
Besides being a mother and having had a successful law practice, ATHENA is the best thing that I've ever accomplished. It's so uplifting to honour people who deserve it.