Joanna Ranieri, 2003 Honour M Award recipient

The following is a citation by McMaster President Peter George on 2003 Honour M Award recipient Joanna Ranieri.

Joanna, the benchmark for the Honour M's is outstanding service to the Hamilton or the McMaster community. You embody the spirit of the Honour M.

An honours student in Biology, with an environmental studies minor, Joanna has combined her education, her dedication and her dreams and has made the world a better place.

Joanna joined the MSU Environment Committee in her second year and immediately became a leader not just in promoting the environment but also in performing the difficult, and often little recognized work that goes into making significant changes that benefit all.

Her work on the MSU Ethics Committee included the drafting of environmental screens for ethical investing and the co-authoring of a Green Procurement Policy for the MSU, and earned her the Volunteer of the Year Award. She organized the Spring Cootes Paradise Clean-Up, Co-Chaired the Tupperware Challenge, Organized Dump and Run  a waste reduction event for students living in the community — was a founding member of the Green Coalition, and worked with Grade 12 students from Sir Winston Churchill High School co-ordinating volunteers for a waste audit and book-binding project. She was also an active member of the committee that produced the environmental policy for McMaster's Campus Plan.

Joanna's success comes from more than her energy and ability to seemingly manage ten tasks at once. It is her fierce commitment to the environment that has gained her respect and recognition and inspired others to get involved with environmental issues.

That respect extends beyond the McMaster community. Joanna has spent equal time helping the City of Hamilton move towards more environmentally friendly policies. She has sat as McMaster's representative on the Hamilton Solid Waste Management Master Plan that created a strategy to divert 65 per cent of waste from landfill sites. She has also been a devoted member of the Keep Hamilton Clean Committee, the Ward One Combined Sewer Overflow Community Advisory Committee, and spent last summer as the Waste Diversion Assistant for the City.

The work Joanna has tackled has made a difference in how the University operates, but perhaps most importantly, how many at the University and in the community think about the environment and the important steps that need to be taken to ensure our ongoing health and success.

Joanna, we thank you for all that you have done and proudly welcome you to the McMaster Honour Society.