MacEwan University is proud to announce the recipients of the university's 2024 Alumni Awards.
This year, five outstanding alumni are being recognized in two award categories - Distinguished Alumni and Emerging Leader - for their achievements and contributions to the arts, business, law and their communities.
Distinguished Alumni Award winners
The Distinguished Alumni Award is presented to alumni who exhibit outstanding achievements or make significant contributions within their professions and service to the community.
Joshua Languedoc (Bachelor of Arts, Honours '10) is a proud member of Saugeen First Nation and lives as a guest in Treaty 6 Territory as an Anishinaabe playwright, producer, storyteller and teacher.
Since 2018, he has been touring his solo performance Rocko and Nakota: Tales From the Land to theatres and festivals across Turtle Island. Some of his other plays include Feast and CIVIL BLOOD: A Treaty Story. Languedoc also teaches with the Citadel's Foote Theatre School, Edmonton Public Schools, Artstrek and Northern Alberta YMCA. He also runs a teen playwriting program and recently became the third Indigenous person ever to earn a Master of Fine Arts, Theatre Practice, with a focus on Indigenous playwriting from the University of Alberta.
Mallory Yawnghwe (Bachelor of Commerce '18) is the co-founder and co-CEO of Indigenous Box, a rapidly growing and economically impactful business that promotes Indigenous entrepreneurship through subscription box and corporate gift services. A member of Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Yawnghwe leads her business based on Indigenous principles and the collective value of honouring the gifts of others.
In 2022, Yawnghwe was among Edify's Top 40 Under 40 and named Indigenous Entrepreneur of the Year by the Innovators and Entrepreneurs Foundation. She is a passionate learner who seeks opportunities to challenge herself and her business, and as a result has been able to grow Indigenous Box into the socially impactful company it is today.
Emerging Leader Award winners
The Emerging Leader Award recognizes recent alumni who have demonstrated an early ability and willingness to make impactful contributions to their professions and community.
Andrew Dunn (Bachelor of Commerce '22, Accounting and Strategic Measurement '20, Accounting Technology '19) uses his passion for accounting to make a positive impact at home and away. He has gone as far as Tanzania, where he volunteered at primary schools teaching staff accounting and helping students in their math and English classes. He continues his support to those schools through fundraising, managing budgets and even making a business proposal to build an additional classroom in one of the schools.
At home, Dunn volunteers with a number of local organizations, including Underwater Search Team and the World Snowshoe Federation. He also understands the importance of volunteering on a personal level and is a Big Brother to a local youth.
Cheyenne Rain LeGrande (Bachelor of Fine Art '16) is a leader and innovator in fashion, art making, publications, curation and community building. The Nehiyaw Isko artist, a member of Bigstone Cree Nation, is dedicated to uplifting and connecting with other Indigenous artists across Canada, using her ancestors, community, and traditional knowledge and practices as a guide to help others amplify their art and stories.
After graduating from MacEwan, LeGrande completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts at Emily Carr University. She has worked with and exhibited at a number of galleries and art institutions across Canada and has won a number of awards, including the British Columbia prize for BMO 1st Art! Emerging Artist competition and the Edmonton Trust Fund Award. Her public mural celebrating the ancestral history of Edmonton's land and Nehiyawewin art is displayed along Edmonton's 124 Street.
Reakash Walters (Bachelor of Communication Studies '15) is a lawyer, junior scholar and former communications professional with a decade of community organizing experience, Walters approaches systemic issues with an arsenal of advocacy tools.
After completing her Juris Doctor at the University of Ottawa and graduating cum laude, Walters practiced as a criminal defence lawyer before earning a coveted clerkship in the chambers of Justice Sheilah Martin at the Supreme Court of Canada.
She also served as a founding member of the Edmonton chapter of Black Lives Matter and is currently a board member for LEAF, Canada's largest feminist legal organization. Walters recently completed her Master of Laws at Columbia University as a Fullbright Scholar, an Alberta Viscount Bennett Scholar and a Columbia Davis Polk Leadership Fellow and will begin pursuing a doctorate of law this fall.
