Contact:

Clint Burnham, 778.782.3438; clint_burnham@sfu.ca

May Doerksen, 778.782.8478; may_doerksen@sfu.ca

Tom Grieve has won the 2013 Dean of Graduate Studies (DGS) Award for Leadership in recognition of his leadership and initiative in founding and guiding the Master of Arts for Teachers of English (MATE) program at the Surrey campus.

Dr. Grieve began planning for the program in the mid 2000s, when he was chair of the English department. He oversaw the program design, and hiring of its core faculty. Throughout the early years of MATE, Tom guided the program on student recruitment and mentorship, curriculum design, and the myriad of connections with SFU offices and programs, including DGS, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, SFU Surrey, and the English department itself. "This combination of institutional praxis, pedagogical foresight, and hands-on detail work helped to ensure the delivery of a program of the highest academic level," says Clint Burnham, current MATE Director.

SFU MATE offers secondary and college English teachers an opportunity to renew their knowledge of and passion for teaching literature. Then they pay it forward. Graduates of MATE teach throughout the lower mainland, and carry their perceptions—seasoned and newly inspired—as well as the SFU reputation into the community and into dozens of classrooms.

“After over 20 years of teaching, I have found the opportunity to reinvent myself as an English student to be stimulating, challenging and exciting. The MATE Program has offered me a structure in which to read literature and to explore, discuss and write about ideas," says Maureen Butler, a local college teacher and MATE alum.

The program would not exist without the hard work, vision, and dedication of Dr. Grieve. As another MATE alum and high school teacher, Mike Sapic, shares, "Tom Grieve has given me and a host of fellow teachers a previously unattainable opportunity to study at the graduate level and to enjoy the challenges and benefits of such study. Bringing this program to the nautically-inspired and beautiful Surrey location has made a real difference."

As of this June, 46 students will have successfully graduated with an MA in English through MATE.