The winner is Gregory Di Cresce, a father of two boys and a PhD candidate in the Department of History.

Last month the University of Manitoba’s Department of Student Life held a contest to provide one of its outstanding students with the opportunity to accompany U of M president Dr. David Barnard to a conference in Montreal where the student will contribute to the dialogue on the future role of Canadian universities. The contest asked students to submit either a video, audio file or essay explaining their vision for the university in the future.

Di Cresce won and he will attend the Oct. 25-26 conference with the president. He has worked for various newspapers, edited film documentaries, and worked for the United Nations information service in Kenya.

“My vision of a 2021 UofM,” Di Cresce wrote in his winning essay, “is one that successfully integrates Aboriginal ways of living and learning with those of the West. It’s a vision that requires the crossing of countless bridges of understanding in a spirit of mutual respect. It’s a vision guided by painful honesty, profound humility, intellectual and moral bravery and an ability to thoroughly quash condescension. This is the revolutionary formula that can begin to move the culture of our university from a place that too often merely reproduces inequalities to a place that regularly challenges inequalities.”

The president will lunch with Di Cresce and all of the students who shared their vision before he and Di Cresce depart for Montreal.

What: President’s lunch
When: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 11:45 a.m.
Where: Alan Borger Sr. Executive Conference Room, room E1-270, in EITC (Engineering and Information Technology Complex)

For more info please contact Sean Moore, Marketing Communications Office, University of Manitoba, at 202-474-4963 (sean_moore@umanitoba.ca) .