The Governor General’s Academic Medal, first awarded in 1873 to recognize scholastic merit, has since become a tradition at graduation ceremonies on university Campuses across Canada.
At their first meeting of 1989, members of UBC’s Sikh Student Association were casting about for possible topics and speakers for the coming year when a new member piped up with the succinct suggestion, “Who is a Sikh?”
Jeevan Deol’s proposal was immediately accepted and the then 17 year old arts student was asked to return in a week and deliver a small talk on the subject.
The association got more than it bargained for. Suffice to say that Deol’s in depth, 60minute historical overview of what it means to be a Sikh left his audience agape,
Today, at the end of a much heralded four years at UBC, Deol’s peers and professors aren’t surprised any more. That initial ‘talk’ to the Sikh association was the first of many the young scholar would give on Campus about South Asian history and culture. Deol finished Arts One with a mark of 100, an unprecedented achievement in the 25year history of the innovative, first year program. He established another benchmark this year when he recorded a perfect mark on the final compulsory essay written by all honors English students.
Deol graduates with a combined honors degree in English and Asian area Studies. Fluent in Hindi, Punjabi, Sanskrit and Urdu the Official language of Pakistan Deol is being sponsored by the University of California,
Berkeley, to spend next year in Pakistan studying and researching Punjabi and Urdu. The University of London won the bidding war for the rights to his graduate career. In October, 1984, he’ll begin work towards a PhD in medieval Punjabi literature and Sikh history.
Article extracted from this publication >>July 2, 1993
