Event urges students to seek awards

Pharmacy & Nutrition PhD student Wendy Dahl tells the audience at a Jan. 30 reception how she managed to succeed at winning student financial awards during her academic career.

University Secretary Gordon Barnhart knows the U of S ranks at the bottom of the Maclean's Canadian universities survey for the number of students receiving scholarships or bursaries - getting less than half the national average number of student awards.

"Yet, we have some of the best students in the country."

Barnhart and others made a start at changing all that Jan. 30 with an upbeat Student Awards Reception at the Faculty Club, attended by about 20 faculty and 70 students, most of whom are either Greystone Scholars or have won President's or Chancellor's scholarships.

Barnhart along with Associate Professor Maureen Rever Du Wors and students Farrah Mateen and Wendy Dahl spoke to the reception audience, congratulating them on their awards and urging them to apply for more and spread the word to their fellow students and faculty members.

Barnhart says students may not be applying for awards because they either don't know about them, or are too shy to "brag" in an application, and applying is also a lot of work.

But he said Dahl, a Pharmacy & Nutrition PhD student with an NSERC scholarship, and Mateen, a fourth-year Medicine student with many scholarships, are proof U of S students can compete and win financial awards. Students at the reception had a chance to say how the University could support more applications.

Barnhart says he was "ecstatic" with the positive response from students and he plans to make it a regular event.

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