Tate Herbert Memorial Post-Secondary Award
This annual award is named after an exceptional young man who lost his life to cancer in 2013 at the age of 20. Tate was studying Law and Society at Wilfrid Laurier University. His passion for justice brought him to a co-op placement at the Barrie office of Legal Aid Ontario. Tate loved both law and education, and OJEN is honoured to administer an award commemorating his life.
Every year OJEN works with hundreds of post-secondary students who assist in delivering justice education projects across the province. The Tate Herbert Memorial Post-Secondary Award recognizes a post-secondary student volunteer who has exceeded expectations and made a significant contribution to OJEN’s justice education initiatives.
Past recipients are acknowledged on a permanent plaque that hangs in the Barrie Courthouse.
If you have worked with an OJEN student volunteer whom you wish to nominate, send their name and brief description of their activities to awardsprix@ojen.ca. An OJEN staff member will follow up. Nominations are received year-round, but must be received before the end of April to be considered for that year.
Past Recipients
2023 Herman Wong
Herman Wong is the 2023 recipient of the Tate Herbert Post-Secondary Volunteer Award. As a member of the 2022-23 Justice Education Fellowship program, Herman delivered justice education workshops to high school classes in the Toronto. His initiative, excellent program delivery and rapport with students made his workshops popular with teachers.
2022 Zoë Paddock
Zoë Paddock is the 2022 recipient of the Tate Herbert Memorial Post-Secondary Award. She came to OJEN during the summer of 2021 on a Social Justice Fellowship from Windsor University’s Faculty of Law. She had just completed her second year of law school and was interested in learning more about public legal education and OJEN’s work. Zoë arrived with a strong background in community service sector work. During her 10 week internship with OJEN, Zoë worked on a variety of programs, including Family Law for Young Parents programs (FLYP), Youth-Police Dialogues and Steps to Justice workshops.
2021 Nehmet Bedar
Nehmat “Nemee” Bedar is in her third year studying law at the University of Ottawa. Nemee was accepted as an OJEN Justice Education Fellowship program in 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic dramatically changed the nature of the Fellowship program during her time in the program. She was required, not only to learn how to deliver OJEN programming, but to re-imagine the program for remote delivery. She succeeded in adapting and delivering “Journey to a Career in Law” into an engaging 60 minute online career modeling activity for high school students.
2020 Miscia Sullivan
Miscia Sullivan is entering her third year at Osgoode Hall Law School. As one of six OJEN Justice Education Fellows in the 2019-20 academic year, Miscia delivered outstanding and innovative programs in her community including an interactive presentation on Safety and Sexting for high school students, which she designed and presented in collaboration with another fellow.
2019 Rebecca Strain
Rebecca first joined OJEN to complete her BSW practicum placement from September 2016 to April 2017. During her time at OJEN, she went above and beyond her placement requirements. At the end of her placement, Rebecca took the lead and planned, coordinated, and facilitated two successful mock trial programs on her own, using the skills learned during her time at OJEN. Thanks to her contribution, OJEN was recognized by the City of Toronto’s Parks, Forestry and Recreation with an award in Community Education.
2018 Halime Celik
Halime Celik assisted with the formation and implementation of a new OJEN Outreach Program – The Legal Leaders Program for Newcomer Youth, designed for newcomer or first generation Canadian youth.
2017 Michele Valentini
A graduate of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, Michele supported OJEN programming for 2 years in both Ottawa and Toronto. During her four-month placement in the summer of 2015, Michele demonstrated outstanding initiative and capability, making significant contributions to several major OJEN initiatives.
2016 Sam Periera
Over the 2015-2016 school year, Sam made a remarkable contribution to the Flip Your Wig for Justice fundraising and awareness raising campaign. One aspect of the campaign involved producing a magazine that profiled “access to justice champions” from across Ontario. Sam took on the job of co-ordinating all the film and video shoots.
2015 Suzie Bouchard
Suzie Bouchard has been awarded the inaugural Tate Herbert Memorial Post-Secondary Award. For two years, as a student at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, she made valuable contributions to OJEN’s justice education initiatives.