Filsan Ahmed Youssouf, winner of the 2023 Provost's Award for Early Achievement of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
8 November 2023
The University of Alberta has awarded one of two 2023 Provost's Award for Early Achievement of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching to Filsan Ahmed Youssouf, Faculty Service Officer teaching physics at Faculté Saint-Jean. The University thus publicly recognizes her level of excellence in teaching, publicizing this excellence to the University and the wider community, and encouraging the pursuit of achievement of such inclusive excellence among newly appointed academic staff.
Filsan Ahmed Youssouf is a Faculty Service Officer at Campus Saint-Jean (CSJ) and one of the few Black women teaching physics at the University of Alberta. She brings her lived experience from a family focused on mutual support in Djibouti to her work with CSJ’s High School to University Transition Program which helps students from under-represented groups transition to university life. The physics lab she leads is one of the university's few certified-gold Green Spaces. She also introduced an EDI component into the physics lab curriculum, creating a space for students to learn and recognize the biases present in science to create a safe and welcoming learning environment. In the community, she holistically promotes science education in French through open days, science fairs, and experimental activities for high school students, which also function as outreach initiatives for minority communities.
The awarding of this prestigious prize only confirms the recognition of Filsan Ahmed Youssouf's teaching talents, which are crucial at the heart of a university community renowned for its spirit of unity, diversity and mutual support. The award also underscores the level of commitment of Campus Saint-Jean professors to the student body, which in turn enjoys a high success rate - an important element forming part of the Saint-Jean advantage.
Winners of the 2023 Faculty Excellence Awards will be recognized at our annual "Celebrate! Teaching. Learning. Research, to be held this fall.