2026 Individual Award Winner

Girish Bhuteja

Conestoga College (Canada)

Recognized as a Student Leader and Champion for Open Education

From the nominator:

Girish Bhuteja is an exceptional student leader at Conestoga College whose work demonstrates the principles and goals of open education through sustained volunteerism, inclusive leadership, and a clear commitment to expanding access to learning for all students. His contributions in his role as OER Project Assistant and across his multiple volunteer roles reflect a deep understanding of openness as participatory, collaborative, and grounded in community impact.

Girish represents the future of open education. He combines technical expertise with empathy, curiosity, and a strong sense of community, demonstrating that openness is about more than resources. It is about creating environments where every learner has the opportunity to participate, contribute, and thrive.

Award Reviewer

Girish Bhuteja clearly demonstrates student leadership through his various efforts, both in his role and outside of it. At Conestoga College he is a key member of the Open Learning team, where he helps create open educational resources and brings in the student perspective to make them better for other students to use. … What I really like is that he is not just using open resources, he is building them and bringing other students along with him, which shows the open education principles of collaboration, community and openness in practice.

Award Reviewer

Learn More

For Open Education Awards 2026, from a seed of nomination, trees will be planted in the name of this award via One Tree Planted.

About Individual Award

Individual awards are special merit awards presented to individuals or organizations that have made extraordinary contributions to advance openness in education.