Davina Finn to receive George Joseph Cooper Scholarship – May 25, 2009

Published in: The Ottawa Jewish Bulletin
Written By:  Michael Regenstreif

Davina Finn will be the 2009 recipient of the George Joseph Cooper Scholarship from the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation.

The award, valued this year at $13,912, is given to a person between 18 and 30 “who has displayed leadership qualities, academic excellence, and an interest in the Jewish community.”  Finn, who grew up in Ottawa and completed her second year at Queen’s University in Kingston this spring, is currently in Jerusalem on a Hasbara Fellowship receiving training in pro-Israel activism.

She journeyed to Israel after participating in the March of Remembrance and Hope in Poland earlier this month and plans to remain in Israel for the summer after completing the Hasbara program at the end of June.

When Finn stopped by the Bulletin office on May 12, just before her departure for the March of Remembrance and Hope, we talked about the article she had written for the Bulletin – MDA volunteer reports from Ambulance 45, August 25, 2008 – about her experiences as a Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance volunteer in Israel last summer.  “I wanted to experience Israel as more than a tourist,” said Finn.

She went to Israel on a Birthright trip and stayed on for the summer with MDA, living and working in a suburb of Tel Aviv.  “It was a way of giving back to the country.”
Keeping busy giving back seems to be something that comes naturally for Finn.
“Volunteering plays a huge role in my life,” she said.

While studying theatre – and all the requisite academic subjects – at Ottawa’s Canterbury High School, Finn was simultaneously president of the student’s council, minister of leadership development of the Ontario Secondary School Student’s Association and co-chair of the United Way Ottawa Youth Action Panel.  And she’s been just as busy, if not busier, since moving on to her university studies in Kingston.

In her first year at Queen’s, Finn worked on the school’s Heart and Stroke Committee organizing fundraising events and spent her spring break in Nicaragua helping doctors and nurses with immunization programs and leading recreational programs at an orphanage and elementary school. She also became co-ordinator of the Queen’s Millennium Scholarship Foundation Chapter, a position she still holds.

Finn’s second year at Queen’s was even busier than her first.  As society affairs deputy commissioner of the Arts and Science Undergraduate Society, Finn was responsible for the social issues portfolio, overseeing the fundraising events and operations of 17 charity committees on campus.

She was also president of the Queen’s chapter of SHOUT (Students Helping Others Understand Tolerance), an organization dedicated to Holocaust awareness and to using the lessons of the Holocaust to stop genocide in today’s world.  Finn’s work with SHOUT also led her back to her passion for theatre.  “I produced and directed The Diary of Anne Frank at the Wellington Street Theatre in Kingston,” she said.
“It turned out better than I could have expected. We did four shows and got very good reviews.”

When she returns to Queen’s in the fall, Finn plans to use theatre again by developing a program called BETA (Bullying Education Through Arts), which will create theatre productions using high school-age actors and Queen’s students as workshop facilitators to help educate elementary school children about bullying.

She’ll also be on the Queen’s Hillel executive and will return to the Arts and Science Undergraduate Society as society affairs commissioner.  Despite a schedule that would seem to leave little time for anything else, Finn has maintained a level of academic achievement that saw her reach the Dean’s Honour List at Queen’s after completing her first year studies with a 91 per cent average.

Clearly, the leadership, academic excellence and volunteer activism displayed by Finn make her a most fitting recipient of the Cooper Scholarship.  With Davina in Israel, her father, Paul Finn, will accept the scholarship cheque on her behalf at the annual general meeting of the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation on Wednesday, June 10, 7:30 pm, in the Zelikovitz Family Social Hall of the Joseph and Rose Ages Family Building, 21 Nadolny Sachs Private. A dessert reception will follow the meeting.