TWU Citizenship Award recipients are selected through a vote by their peers, as well as by staff and faculty. Since 1980, Trinity Western has presented the Citizenship Award annually at graduation to a female and male graduate who have exemplified servant leadership and made a significant impact on the Trinity Western community.
Award recipients are standout students who embody the vision of TWU to "equip every graduate to think truthfully, act justly, and live faithfully for the good of the world and the glory of God."
Baccalaureate service and student leadership awards
TWU’s baccalaureate service, held on April 26 during the spring graduation weekend, provided a wonderful opportunity for the undergraduate class of 2024 to worship together with their families, hear from fellow members of the graduating class, and be commissioned into their next steps beyond Trinity Western.
Along with sung worship, prayer, Scripture reading, and student testimonies, each year, the University awards two graduating students with the TWU Citizenship Award.
Congratulations to the 2024 Citizenship Award winners, Abigail Broadhurst and Cedrick Iyumva!
2024 TWU Citizenship Award recipient Abigail Broadhurst
"Living in a community that calls me to higher purposes, cheers me on, has grace for me, and walks alongside me through all seasons has given me a glimpse into the many facets of
God’s character lived out."
Abigail Broadhurst, an honours major in Art and Design with a minor in Psychology, grew up on Vancouver Island with a love for all sorts of creative expressions and a desire to form and be a part of intentional communities. At TWU, Broadhurst found a home in the art studio, a place where expression was welcomed and experimentation and risk-taking was encouraged. She attests that “The art studio has become a reflection of the larger community that I had once only hoped to experience at TWU—a hospitable, caring, passionate community that calls one another to continue to press in deeper.”
During her first year, Broadhurst served on TWUSA, the undergraduate student association, as the freshman events assistant and continued her service with TWUSA as the director of events. Serving on TWUSA filled her years with joy, exciting events, a newly discovered passion for mentorship, and deep growth. For the past two years, Broadhurst served in the Student Leadership program, as the women’s mentorship coordinator and a discipleship facilitator for Student Ministries. “These roles have helped me transform my growth into action,” Broadhurst shared, “as I actively sought ways to live out my faith in my day-to-day life and participate in a community of disciples.”
“TWU has had a transformational impact on my life,” she continued. “Throughout my time at TWU, I have not only served but been served and poured into by my peers, professors, and staff. The way I see the world has been shaped by my art faculty, just as the way I live out my faith has been shaped by my mentors in leadership,” she added.
“Living in a community that calls me to higher purposes, cheers me on, has grace for me, and walks alongside me through all seasons has given me a glimpse into the many facets of God’s character lived out. I have experienced such a wealth of growth during my time at Trinity. Beyond that, I have been instilled with the joy of being a life-long learner, and I look forward to the ways in which I will continue to grow.”
2024 TWU Citizenship Award recipient, Cedrick Iyumva
“Trinity Western University has...allowed me to see the world much bigger than myself
—beyond myself.”
Cedrick Iyumva is a History major whose journey to TWU emerged during his track and field training sessions in high school, when a Spartans coach encouraged Iyumva. In fact, the coach along with the members of the Spartans men’s track and field team visited Iyumva at work to demonstrate their care. Their openness and initiative made an impression, as Iyuma recalls, “That was the day I knew I would have Christ-centered community—that I would have good neighbours—if I went to Trinity Western.”
After arriving at TWU, Iyumva would actively help build and shape the campus community. He was a peer instructor for a Foundations 101 course. He presented academic research at the 2021 and 2022 TWU research conferences, and his work was later published in the UC Berkeley Undergraduate History Journal. He co-founded the club, Global Educo Association, where, as club president, he led campus-wide discussions on current and historical global issues. He also served with Global Outreach service-learning teams for two years, traveling to Fort Babine, B.C. to live on a reserve and learn from the Indigenous community. Iyumva was involved with leadership through the Spartans diversity and anti-racism committee, and through serving on the Canada West Athletic Association Student-Athlete Engagement committee. He took part in TWU's Black History Month events through singing with the choir and being a panel speaker, and also volunteered with TWU's Day of Learning to foster Indigenous reconciliation.
Reflecting on his university years, Iyumva says, “Trinity Western University has formed me into a positive, goal-oriented Christian and has shown me that I’m capable of impacting lives and glorifying God in the various marketplaces of life. It introduced me to people and perspectives that allowed me to see the world much bigger than myself—beyond myself.”
“…Whether it was researching stories left behind in history or the bike rides with the youth in Fort Babine, I am here to affirm that Trinity Western University has equipped me to think truthfully, walk humbly, act justly and love mercy, for the good of the world and the glory of God.”
Commissioning prayer
One especially meaningful part of the baccalaureate service is the moment when TWU staff and faculty, along with parents and families, offered a commissioning prayer over the graduating class of 2024. This year, the prayer was led by Dr. Chad Friesen, professor of chemistry, and Pam Teigen, undergraduate admissions manager:
Lord Jesus,
Together we stand with these graduates to celebrate their academic achievements, their perseverance, and their contribution to this community. We stand with these graduates to affirm their skills, their dreams, and their lives. Most of all, Lord, we stand with these graduates to declare Your faithfulness to them, Your hope for them, and Your love over them.
We acknowledge the many people who made a Trinity Western education possible for these graduates. Thank You for the time, money, advice, prayer and encouragement sacrificially given by family, friends, and members of the TWU community.
Together we pray Your abundant blessing over these graduates as they journey on from Trinity Western. Bless them with commitment to live and lead with integrity. May they seek to do the right thing for the right reasons. Where they have power, may they use it for the highest good. Where they have a voice, may they speak Your words, with Your authority, and on Your behalf.
Bless them with the humility and self-discipline to remain teachable. Grant them friends and mentors further ahead on the journey who can guide and strengthen them. Give them an appetite for learning and a healthy discontent with the status quo. May they grow daily in the knowledge and love of God. Help them not to conform to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their mind. Grant them the courage to confront injustice and the patience to pursue reconciliation.
Bless them with the kind of hospitality modelled by Jesus. Fill them with compassion for the stranger and the person on the margins. May their circle of influence not be small but may it be expanded by your love. Together we pray that each graduate, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.
By Your Spirit, empower these graduates to cast off everything that hinders and press on towards Christ himself. Guide their feet on their journey from pride to humility, from greed to generosity, from hatred to compassion, from doubt to faith, from fear to love, and from self-sufficiency to God-dependency. May You continue the work of new creation You have begun in them until the day of Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit we pray, Amen.
See also: Congratulations to spring 2024 TWU graduands
About Trinity Western University
Founded in 1962, Trinity Western University is a global Christian liberal arts university. We are dedicated to equipping students to discover meaningful connections between career, life, and the needs of the world. Drawing upon the riches of the Christian tradition, seeking to unite faith and reason through teaching and scholarship, Trinity Western University is a degree-granting research institution offering liberal arts and sciences as well as professional schools in business, nursing, education, human kinetics, graduate studies, and arts, media, and culture. It has campuses in Canada in Langley, Richmond, and Ottawa. Learn more at www.twu.ca or follow us on Instagram @trinitywestern, Twitter @TrinityWestern, on Facebook and LinkedIn. For media inquiries, please contact: media@twu.ca.