Graduate student awarded prestigious Vale scholarship

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Alison Scott, a chemical engineering MASc candidate, has been awarded the Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation's Vale Scholarship. Each year the prestigious scholarship of $10,000 is awarded to one woman enrolled full-time in an engineering master’s program at a Canadian university.

Scott, who graduated with her BASc in chemical engineering from Waterloo in 2013, is described as a great ambassador for engineering by Mary Wells, engineering's associate dean, outreach.

"Alison is an amazing person and is currently running our girls club and has always helped out tremendously in all our outreach events," says Wells.

In an interview last fall for Waterloo Stories, Scott described her Girls Club coordinator role as helping to break down stereotypes.

"If you ask a kid what an engineer does, they will often say that they work on a train or at a construction site.”

Scott said in the interview that girls enrolled in the program are often already invested in math and science, so she hopes Girls Club participants will be ambassadors for their friends at school. “It’s important for these girls to be role models for their peers.”

For over 20 years, Vale has partnered with CEMF to support women in engineering. Applicants must demonstrate an interest and desire to work the mining/metallurgical fields of engineering. 

Source: Engineering News