Next month, Champlain Saint-Lambert is proud to send a group of students and staff to the annual Forces Avenir awards ceremony in Quebec City to represent some of the amazing student life initiatives on campus.

From a pool of amazing local Forces Avenir winners, several projects were selected to participate in selection interviews last spring and two clubs have been chosen as provincial finalists in the college-level awards.

The Forces Avenir awards aim to celebrate the achievements of high school, college and university-age students with a series of awards in categories such as Healthy Living, Environment and Peace and Justice.

This year, the college’s Chemistry Club has been named as a finalist in the category of Science and Technology.

Still a relatively new group on campus, this initiative has gained enormous popularity with students who aim to embrace the excitement of scientific discovery outside of the classroom.

Accompanied by Champlain chemistry teacher Manlio Alessi, the Chemistry Club has provided a place for learning, collaboration and fun for members.

By pioneering hands-on experiments outside the pressures of the classroom, the club provides students with an engaging way to explore chemistry’s wonders — an experience that is especially valuable for non-science students, who rarely have the opportunity to work in a laboratory setting.

Beyond the lab experiments, it strengthens student-teacher connections through activities like the teacher-student trivia competition, structured peer-led study groups, and all-day final exam review sessions attended by over 100 students.

In the category of Society, Communications and Education, the Black Lives Allyship Mission (BLAM) has been named a finalist for their project: “Let’s Get Real: Unmasking Healthcare Inequities, Empowering Change.”

The event, held last spring, is part of the broader “Let’s Get Real” initiative supported by Student Services Psychologist Wanita Jones, dedicated to fostering open and critical discussions on controversial topics in a safe and structured environment.

This particular session focused on shedding light on racial disparities in healthcare and equipping future healthcare providers with knowledge and tools to address these issues. It addressed topics such as the misdiagnosis of racialized patients and the underrepresentation of people of colour in medical research and education.

The event was well-received, particularly among the College’s nursing students, who expressed a desire for continued dialogue and curriculum integration.

In previous years, Champlain Saint-Lambert’s Green Team and BLAM group have taken home Forces Avenir trophies marking the significance of their contributions to the college community.

Congrats to all the nominees and to the local winners who were celebrated during a presentation ceremony last April.