Belinda Sayeau won the 2010 Colleges Ontario Student Excellence Award for her leadership at Fanshawe College and her work with aboriginal students.

Sayeau was nominated by the vice-president of student services for her time spent as external cochair of the First Nations Students Association, where she was also on the executive board for a couple of years. Being the co-chair of that student association also put her in the position of being co-chair of the Aboriginal Education Council, a community group.

She also attended the Student Retention Conference this year with former Fanshawe Student Union president Jabari Cooper, where she spoke on behalf of the college. She is currently a customer service representative at Fanshawe's First Nations Centre.

"She has been very successful academically," said Donna Smith- Sutherland, supervisor of the First Nations Centre at Fanshawe. "(But) it's about the work she did here on campus as a student, it's very significant."

"In her humility, she sees this award not just as an accomplishment of hers but of all Aboriginal students at the college," Smith- Sutherland added.

For Sayeau, winning the award has been a great experience.

"It's really awesome to be recognized for this stuff that comes naturally. To be nominated, that's a wonderful achievement, but to win the award — I'm still grappling with it," she said.

Sayeau is from a small town in Northwest Ontario that has "one stoplight," and she is grateful for the opportunities she's found at Fanshawe.

"To be working in this huge college and to have done the things I've done and to influence students, that was a big thing for me," she said, recalling when she was in Olive Oyl's on campus and a culinary student thanked her for her encouragement to pursue their goals. "It's a really amazing thing to affect people's choices in education."

Nominees of the Student Excellence Award had to show leadership over a period of time, that they designed or initiated change that benefitted students and was unique to the college system, improved accessibility to students and enhanced their educational experience or improved the quality of student life. They also had to demonstrate that the contribution made has achieved its intended impact, over a long period of time.

Sayeau will receive her award this month at the Higher Education Summit conference in Toronto. She is most looking forward to being able to thank her parents.

"I would like to honour my parents because I wouldn't be me without them," she said. "When I was a child, I wondered why I was adopted and not in a Native family. I think I chose this life, the way I was raised. I was raised by awesome parents."

But it is Sayeau who will be thanked for her work, which has been about more than her individual accomplishments.

"It's important for our students ... they see Belinda as a role model because she is very proactive and wanting to educate people on the issues Aboriginal students are facing, she wanted to say that we are successful," said Smith- Sutherland.

"Belinda is an example of what students can accomplish when they are provided with the kind of resource and activities where our Aboriginal world view is embedded in them."