The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2004, Page 31

Vol. 58 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
125
Frederickson honoured
Recipient of prestigious Aboriginal Achievement Award
Taken from the University of Manitoba newsletter
Kristinn Frederickson has
won many awards, but none
of them hold a candle to the
one he received last week.
The University of
Manitoba engineering student
was announced the youth
recipient of a prestigious
Aboriginai Achievement
Award, a top honour that is
conferred on just 14 people
each year. Only one youth
recipient is named per year.
"It's such an honour; the
award is analogous to the
Order of Canada for
Aboriginal peopie," Frederickson said.
"It's the highest honour the Aboriginal
community can give."
An anecdote he's shared more than a
few times in the past week, Frederickson
learned he had won the award en route to
the Pas. A woman from the National
Aboriginal Achievement Foundation called
his cell phone to confirm he had received a
fax she had sent earlier in the day.
Frederickson hadn't, and the representative
from the NAAF wouldn't reveal any
details over the phone. She did agree, how-
ever, to resend the fax to Frederickson's
father.
"I called my dad and he read it out to
me. Fie started to get choked up as he was
reading it, and then I started to get a bit
choked up too."
Frederickson was given the award in
recognition of the significant contributions
he's already made to the Aboriginai com-
munity, the University of Manitoba and
the field of biosystems engineering.
As an honour-roll undergraduate,
Frederickson examined the state of waste-
water treatment facilities on 61 northern
reserves. Fie found that far
too many of them — nearly 75
per cent—didn't meet federal
standards for acceptable treat-
ment. As a master's student,
he's set to work on fixing the
problem.
Flis work focuses on
membrane bioreactors, which
he believes have the potential
to provide better wastewater
treatment for Aboriginal
communities in the North.
The bioreactors are relatively
easy to automate, can be run
on a smaller reactor than con-
ventionai treatment systems and potential-
ly be operated at a lower cost.
Frederickson credits the U of M's
Engineering Access Program, or ENGAP
as it's most commonly called, in helping
him reach his goals as an engineer. Fie
points out that of 150,000 registered pro-
fessional engineers in Canada, just 150 are
Aboriginal. Of those 150, approximately
one-third have graduated from ENGAP.
UENGAP has been instrumental in all
of this," he says. "They provide all the sup-
port that Aboriginal students could need.
It's the best program in Canada of its kind.
It's without peer, really."
Frederickson says for now he plans to
continue focusing his efforts on drinking
and waste water treatment. Broadly speak-
ing, he's planning a career in social policy
development within the environmental sec-
tor.
And if past successes are any indica-
tion, he’ll likely continue to be recognized
for his wide-ranging achievements, too.
Tie’s already racked up awards or scholar-
ships from the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Councii, Xerox