Our October general meeting is designated Education Night. Guests from our partner institutions and recent award recipients are invited to attend and meet our members. Their brief thank you speeches are always heart-warming and well received.
We are also sent many letters expressing gratitude from those women using our scholarships to further their education:
My career aspiration is to become a mental health counsellor for children and youth; after I have solidified a job, I would like to pursue graduate studies, specifically a Master of Social Work, in order to focus on developing research surrounding youth mental health. My goal is to make an impact in the mental health field through research and advocacy, while changing the lives of young children. College has been an incredible experience thus far and this award brought an immense amount of relief, it made me feel appreciated and it took a huge burden off of my shoulders. I am extremely grateful for the award that you have provided me with, I cannot thank you enough for your generous donation to a student that you had yet to meet. Please know that I appreciate your kindness and I hope that this letter allowed you to learn a little bit about me. Once more, thank you so much for this award, I am eternally grateful.
I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to the University Women’s Club of North York for granting me the Female in Engineering Award. It is an honour to receive recognition for my achievements at Earl Haig and within my community. Since Grade 9, I have been dedicated to academia, working hard to maintain an average above 94% in each year to come. The pinnacle of my secondary school career did not come, however, until this year, when I achieved a top 6 average of 96.8% and obtained the Queen’s University Chancellor’s Scholarship. This award, valued at $36,000, is distributed to 50 students across Canada who displayed outstanding academics, leadership, and creativity throughout secondary school. My extracurricular activities are a representation of my love for STEM and mentorship. In Grade 10, I co-founded an Engineers Without Borders Club to provide Earl Haig students with the opportunity to enrich their knowledge of the physical sciences. As co-director, I regularly collaborate with my executive members to host events such as water filter design challenges and debates about lunar tourism. Moreover, since Grade 9, I have worked as an Assistant Teacher at Spirit of Math Schools. In this occupation, I strive to impart my passion for problem-solving and to foster critical thinking in students. After graduation, I will matriculate at the University of Waterloo to study Systems Design Engineering with a President’s Scholarship of Distinction. The Female in Engineering Award will not only be conducive to my financial stability, but will also empower me to trailblaze for women in STEM and encourage successive female students to pursue engineering.