Grayson Tourney and Spencer Dmytruk graduated at the top of their respective colleges. (Submitted)

By Nigel Maxwell

Award winners

St. Mary alum received top awards at U of S

Jun 10, 2025 | 2:00 PM

The Governor General’s Academic Medals are among the highest honours awarded to outstanding Canadian scholars, and this year’s recipients include two St. Mary alumni.

Spencer Dmytruk and Grayson Tourney both plan to attend medical school in the Fall at the University of Saskatchewan.

The Governor General’s Silver Medal is presented to the student who achieves the highest overall academic standing based on their Graduation Grade Point Average (GGPA) in a degree program. Dmytruk said it’s a really big privilege to receive that kind of honour.

“I’m really fortunate to have such a supportive and inspiring community around me, and I think [the medal] is not only reflective of my own efforts but reflective of everyone that helped me along the way,” he said.

Spencer. (Submitted photo)

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Dmytruk graduated from St. Mary in 2021. Reflecting back on his high school days in Prince Albert, he noted the strong sense of community and a feeling that everyone wanted the best for each other.

“That’s what kind of drew me to the College of Kinesiology because it was a smaller program and I felt like it shared a lot of the same community values St. Mary had and I think that’s something that really helped set me up for success and helped push me outside of my comfort zone having a supportive community around me.”

Tourney, who was awarded most outstanding student in biomedical neuroscience and received the university medal in biomedical sciences degree, was equally excited about the Governor General’s Medal.

Grayson. (Submitted photo)

“Each test I took, I was just gonna try to do my best and it’s pretty special to see that each day you go and try to do your best and there’s eventually just this huge honor that that comes from it so although you might think that each day is this very small building block, it’s much greater to see it all kind of come to fruition at the end here so it’s been pretty special.”

Acknowledging how special it is to have the silver medals go to two St Mary graduates, Tourney believes it helps put his hometown on the map.

“I think there’s quite a lot of talent coming out of Prince Albert,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who are doing a lot of really great things from my year, so it’s nice to see it.”

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Blue Sky: @nigelmaxwell.bsky.social