The Office of the Provost and Vice-President (Academic), through the Discovery Centre for Undergraduate Research and Engagement honours exemplary undergraduate students with the Provost Scholars Award each spring. The students are nominated by their faculties for excellence in one of the four pillars of the Discovery Centre:
- undergraduate research,
- community engagement
- internationalization
- immersive learning
There are up to two awards per Faculty valued at $1000 each. Final judging of the submissions was done by the Provost and Vice-President (Academic) in consultation with the Vice-Provost and Associate Vice –President (Academic) John Shepherd, the Vice-President (Students and Enrolment) Suzanne Blanchard, and the Interm Director of the Discovery Centre Cheryl Schramm.
Due to the variety of work done by students throughout the university, there can be a broad interpretation of the four categories above, but the student’s work must be linked to their studies at Carleton. Although the focus is on individuals, nominations of groups or teams of undergraduate students were also considered, with the award money shared. Nominated students were all registered in an undergraduate program in 2015-16.
We are pleased to highlight this years’ Award Recipients:
Heather McGale, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Psychology
Heather has achieved success in the areas of undergraduate research, community engagement and immersive learning. As a research assistant with the RCMP for 2 years, Heather has related her thesis work to the real-world police interaction with the public as it relates to recent incidents such as the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. She is committed to extracurricular volunteer work as a Bounce Back facilitator, and as an assistant to other students to improve their grades by working with them to identify important resources and help them cope with academic stressors.
Selam Abebe, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Child Studies
For her Honours degree, Selam designed an original research project titled, “What are you?”: It is an in-depth look at Mixed Race Childhood Experiences in Canada” based on semi-structured interviews with a dozen Ottawa-based youth. Taking her undergraduate research into the community is only one way Selam engages with those around her. She is a volunteer note taker at the Paul Menton Centre, President of the Child Studies Society, is a primary and secondary school tutor and recently presented her research at the National Council on Undergraduate Research Conference in Asheville, North Carolina.
Anais Voski, Faculty of Public Affairs, Journalism and Communications
Anais is described as committed, curious and deeply engaged in making an impact at home and abroad. She is committed to her studies and is a dedicated organiser of major events for the Jean Monnet Chair “Democracy in the European Union.” Her involvement in a recent field trip to attend the presidential primaries in New Hampshire brought forward her strong work ethic and diligence in investigating all avenues of information.
Abdulraham al-Masri, Faculty of Public Affairs, Political Science
Abdulraham embodies community engagement, internationalization, immersive learning, and a strong commitment to academic excellence. His professionalism, commitment and unique perspective enabled him to be instrumental in founding and sustaining #Refugees Welcome Ottawa – an organization creating concrete public events around the ongoing refugee crisis in Syria. In addition to his probing journalism and numerous published articles, Abdulraham is a critical thinker with a willingness to learn and support those around him.
Shira Schwartz, Faculty of Science, Biology
Shira has excelled in the areas of undergraduate research and community engagement. Her demanding Honours thesis has her investigation of the therapeutic effects of sub-symptom exercise regimen on progression of post-concussive syndrome – this involves direct patient contact and testing, and working with both physicians and physiotherapists at the Carleton Sports Medicine and Physiotherapy clinics. In addition to her dedicated research, Shira maintains various volunteer positions with Let’s Talk Science, she has a long-term commitment with extracurricular crowd-sourcing for the Biology Department helping them improve the anatomy lab teaching materials.
Meagan Harper, Faculty of Science, Biology
Meagan excels in undergraduate research, community engagement and immersive learning. She has led a team of undergraduate students to produce a prioritization system for invasive species management in the National Capital Commission (NCC) lands. Her research has contributed to the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority, NCC and Parks Canada work. In addition to relevant research projects in other course work, her ongoing volunteer positions with the Paul Mention Centre, Parks Canada and the Institute of Environmental Science make Meagan worthy of this award.
Kyle Stoles, Sprott School of Business, Commerce
Kyle is a 4th year honours student in BCom, Finance concentration and is portfolio Manager for the Sprott Student Investment Fund. The fund is wholly responsible for the investment of roughly $800,000 worth of Sprott endowment money, and Kyle is responsible for managing the team of 20-odd students. Kyle completes industry calibre analysis, presents quarterly presentations to the Investment Committee of the University and introduces the world of equity investing to the students at large. Kyle was a participant on the Sprott team that participated in The Economist magazine investment competition last year, finishing 3rd in the world and has participated in other prestigious competitions with contributions nothing short of outstanding.
Victor Aziz, Faculty of Engineering and Design, Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering
In the Mechanical and Biomedical engineering program Victor has a commitment for problem solving. He has strong organizational skills while projecting self-confidence onto colleagues, building their trust and commitment as a team. Las summer he joined a team of biomedical engineers exploring spray characterization of pharmaceutical aerosols with a partnered company, Coraltec Inc. (Toronto, ON). He has worked diligently on an I-CUREUS research grant in the biomedical engineering field. Victor looks beyond his studies with volunteer positions with the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society and as vice-president of Carleton University’s Biomedical Engineering Society (CUBES).
Health Care Product Design Group, Faculty of Engineering, School of Industrial Design
The following five students: Evelyn Choi, Eric Cross, Bryce Booth Dawson, Rhys Jones and Benjamin Miller were nominated together as part of the Health Care Product Design Group. Their commitment to undergraduate research and community engagement relating to the Canadian health care context is impressive. Extensive research, site visits, consultations, design and prototyping went into the health care products that were created. The students worked with both industry experts, and consulted with fellow communication students to create product prototypes. Their products are impressive.
Thank you to all who nominated students for the 2015-16 Provost Scholar Award. Please also read about the 2014-2015 Award recipients.