CEMF Dillon Undergraduate Engineering Scholarship

The Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation (CEMF) has announced a NEW!! 2013 scholarship for women in engineering. Partnering with Dillon Consulting Limited a $5,000 Dillon Undergraduate in Engineering scholarship is now open across Canada to a woman studying engineering in an accredited university program. THE DEADLINE IS THIS FEB.22, 2013. The application in English and French is on the CEMF website www.cemf.ca.

Congratulations to Natalie Linklater, Winner of CEMF Scholarship!

Our very own CU-WISE Outreach Officer Natalie Linklater has been awarded the national $15,000 Claudette MacKay-Lassonde scholarship from the Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation!

From the press release:

She has been selected from candidates across the country for the esteemed $15,000 scholarship which is awarded annually to the most promising women in a graduate engineering program at the PhD level in Canada. Natalie personifies the definitive qualities of the Claudette MacKay-Lassonde scholarship by not only achieving great personal success, but also through her many contributions to her community and the engineering profession.

“Through Natalie’s many successes in the engineering world and her community we can see she truly embodies the qualities that make her the ideal candidate for the Claudette MacKay-Lassonde scholarship. On behalf of CEMF we are thrilled to support her as an ambassador and as a leader to help break down barriers and educate women in Canada who are currently pursuing or considering a degree in engineering,” says CEMF president Huntley O’Connor, P.Eng

Congrats Natalie on this well-deserved award!

Reminder: Grace Hopper Celebration scholarship applications due May 31st

Edit: The deadline has been extended to May 31st.

Just a quick reminder: scholarship applications to attend the 2011 Grace Hopper Celebration are due May 31st, so you've got a bit less than a week to get them done!

The Celebration is being held on November 9-12, 2011 in Portland, Oregon. CUWISE has limited funds to help with travel expenses, so if you're interested in going this year please apply for a scholarship so that more CUWISE members can afford to go!

Don't forget that you'll need a letter of support from a faculty member, so make sure you go out and ask for that now so they have time to write it before the deadline! You'll also need an updated resume and a 500 word essay, so the sooner you start the better.

My friend Leslie recently gave a presentation on the scholarship application process that I'm embedding below so you know what to expect:

Grace Hopper Infosession

View more presentations from Leslie Hawthorn

Good luck!

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2009

I don't remember the first time I heard about the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, but I do remember when I decided this was something I had to check out.

I was at a day-long meeting for one of our inter-university research groups. A number of the graduate students had been invited to give talks on our current research, myself included. The talks had been going well, and it was super-interesting seeing what other people were doing, since each university has a very different flavour to the research produced, even though we were theoretically under the same research banner.

During one of the breaks, I ran into one of the primary investigators in the women's washroom. We were the only two women at this particular meeting (a bit of an oddity for me, since my research group at Carleton has many other women!) and we got to talking about, well, girl stuff. Science-y, intellectual girl stuff! I love meeting other female resarchers. As we're standing there washing our hands, she told me all about Grace Hopper and how much fun the conference was -- a whole conference full of smart, interesting women, their research, their ideas! And then we laughed at ourselves, saying "Any minute now, the guys are going to phone wondering where we are and we'll have to admit we've been gabbing in the washroom like teenagers..."

And then her cell phone rang. We grinned at each other and hurried back to the meeting.

Anyhow, the call for participation in 2009 has gone out, and they're looking for people to give technical papers, panels, birds of a feather sessions, etc. You've got until March 16, 2009 to make a submission if you want, although apparently lots of people attend even if they aren't giving talks, so if you just want to check out the conference, you can do that too! It happens in the fall, Sept 30-Oct 3rd this year.

They also offer some scholarships, mostly aimed at students, to help cover costs. Those don't open 'till March 19th, but since you're more likely to get a scholarship if you participate, you might want to think about getting those participation applications in soon! And if you're a member of CU-WISE, we also have some funds earmarked for the conference, so you might be able to get some extra help from us!

This year will hopefully mark my first time going to the conference, but a number of our members attended last year, so if you'd like to hear some first-hand reports, check out their stories on this blog and then think about putting in a proposal for this year. Hopefully, I'll be seeing you there!

Google Canada Anita Borg Scholarship

Group Shot
Originally uploaded by Terriko.

Last year, Gail and I had the opportunity to go to a women's retreat in New York, all expenses paid. Not only did we get to meet fellow female students from Canada, but we also got to meet a number of women from Google, and attend sessions on technology, new research, and even work-life balance issues. And you know what they say about how Google folk always have the best food? Yeah, we were totally spoiled.

Want to know how you can get in on this this year? It's part of the Anita Borg Scholarships!

The Google Canada Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship is intended to encourage women to excel in computing and technology and become active role models and leaders. It's aimed at senior undergraduate and graduate students. As one might expect for a scholarship, there is some money attached ($5000 each for the winners, and $1000 each for the runners up), but the real perk, for me, was that they do this networking retreat for all the finalists. While we're fortunate here at Carleton to have CU-WISE bringing us together, opportunities to meet other women studying science and engineering are rare and wonderful things. I had a blast meeting the other finalists and hearing about the challenges and opportunities they've had over the course of their academic careers.

I highly recommend that anyone who's eligible apply for the scholarship. It's an terrific opportunity to spend time with other super-amazing women!

The deadline is Monday, February 23rd, 2009. That might seem a while off, but you'll need reference letters and transcripts and I found it took me a while to write the short essays required. So get started soon!