A local entrepreneur has established new funding opportunities for undergraduate women at Waterloo Engineering.
Janét Aizenstros, founder and chair of Kitchener-based Ahava Group Global, a women-led modern media parent company, has started a scholarship and an award she describes as providing “a launching pad for future generations of women.”
The Janét Aizenstros Engineering Scholarship, will be awarded annually to students in second to fourth year with a minimum cumulative course
Applicants are required to write a 500 to 1,000-word essay describing the positive impact they have had on the African, Caribbean or Black Canadian communities through extracurricular or volunteer involvement.
Janét Aizenstros wants to inspire female engineering students.
The Janét Aizenstros Entrepreneurial Award will be awarded each year to one or more full-time undergraduate female engineering students enrolled in the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business Enterprise Co-op program. It is the first woman in engineering scholarship for Conrad students established by a Black Canadian woman.
Conrad faculty members will choose recipients based on the rate of progress and venture development stage of the applicants’ business ideas.
“The world needs more women engineers,” says Aizenstros. “I want women to be inspired so that they can be all they can be, and no one can stop them.”
Award-winning business owner
Aizenstros, who holds a PhD in metaphysical sciences specializing in Conscious Business Ethics & Conscious Centered Living along with an EMBA, is a signatory with the United Nations Business Action Hub (UNBAH) for the United Nations Global Compact program, a leader within Concordia Leadership Council and the Young President’s Organization (YPO).
She has been recognized as one of the Top 40 under 40, the Top 10 Inspiring Women in Canada, 2019 Conscious Company Media’s Top 22 Business Leaders and the 2013-2014 YMCA-YWCA Woman of Distinction of Business and Entrepreneur.
Ahava Group Global was recently awarded rank on Canadian Business Magazine’s 2020 Growth List, which makes Aizenstros the first Black Canadian woman to scale a nine-figure organization.