The University of Waterloo offers International Experience Awards to support full-time graduate students pursuing an academic exchange, a study term related to their research (field work), or an academic requirement (placement), work, or volunteer experience.
Learn about how International Experience Awards have enriched the experience of graduate students and how you can apply.
Arts recipients
Mikayla MacIntyre
Mikayla MacIntyre, a master’s student in Global Governance, travelled to Germany to work on her major research paper, which explores the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) in Canada.
April Pereira
April Pereira travelled to the University of Illinois to work on a project related to her doctoral research in the Department of Psychology.
Engineering recipients
Rishabh Bajaj
Rishabh Bajaj travelled to Tokyo, Japan, to conduct cutting-edge research at the National Institute of Informatics, applying AI and 3D vision techniques to fields like medical imaging while blending technology, culture, and collaboration in a transformative global research experience.
Sharafat Ali
Sharafat Ali travelled to the United States of America to conduct his doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.
Environment recipients
Alexa Bennett
Alexa Bennett travelled to Cape Coast, Ghana to conduct research for her doctoral thesis.
Farah El-Shayeb
Farah El-Shayeb travelled to Java, Indonesia to conduct research for her master's thesis.
Health recipients
Hannah Rayel
Hannah Rayel traveled to Tacloban, Philippines, to collaborate with International Care Ministries on research exploring how low-income adults manage non-communicable diseases and extreme weather events.
Jeremy Cohen
Jeremy Cohen travelled to Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, where he expanded his PhD research by learning advanced biomedical imaging techniques like EchoDynamography and gaining hands-on experience in an international research environment.
Math recipients
Rick Perche
Rick Perche travelled to the United Kingdom and Greece to further his research and professional engagement in the field.
Science recipients
Yuheng (Oliver) Song
Yuheng (Oliver) Song travelled to Shanghai Jiao Tong University to further his PhD research on water's thermodynamic properties.
Atiyeh Ahmadi
PhD student Atiyeh Ahmadi travelled to the University of Cambridge to explore one of science’s biggest questions—how life began—combining chemistry, biology, and computational modelling.
Sharon Qiu
Sharon Qiu visited Boston, MA to advance her research on next-generation scleral lenses that use advanced imaging technologies to improve vision and comfort for patients with complex corneal diseases.
Waterloo offers several international experience awards annually to full‐time graduate students who participate in a minimally paid or volunteer work placement, an academic exchange, or a study term related to academic requirements or research.