Announced recently by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC), the awards are for high-calibre scholars at the master’s, doctoral and postdoctoral levels. TRU grads, Conrad Scott, Melanie Perreault, Maxine Crawford, Eden Dovauo and Brant Shapka have each been awarded Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships of $17,500 towards their master’s degrees.

“The SSHRC Bombardier Awards are a national honour, awarded on a highly competitive basis. All of the nominees from TRU were successful in winning in this competitive national arena,” said Dr. Nancy Van Wagoner, Associate Vice-President of Research and Graduate Studies. “Our students are able to achieve these high honours because of the unique undergraduate research opportunities available at TRU.”

Conrad Scott is one of five TRU graduates to have recently been awarded scholarship money through a national competition (SSHRCC) to pursue their Master's degrees.

To receive such recognition the TRU students achieved academic excellence, and demonstrated clear capacity to produce excellent research in the social sciences and humanities.

As an institutional and educational environment, TRU provides many opportunities for students to engage in one-on-one original research relationships with faculty, and to explore various angles of unique experience with research training. Initiatives such as the University Research Experience Award Program and the TRU undergraduate research conference foster an exceptional learning environment enabling students to compete nationally for graduate awards.

According to Conrad Scott, TRU’s faculty members are a key part of that exceptional learning environment. Now at the University of Victoria pursuing a Master of Arts in English, he said, “It was the personable, collegial atmosphere of TRU, and the personal interests of faculty members willing to provide opportunities to better student involvement in professional activities that led to my successful competition for the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Master’s Scholarship.

“TRU faculty both supported me with strong references and appraisals of my academic progress, as well as supported my application through to the national competition level,” said Scott.

He was supported by Dr. Tom Friedman, Dr. Ken Simpson, and Dr. Will Garrett-Petts.

With a concentration in “Literatures of the West Coast” Scott will pursue research on place in contemporary Canadian literature.

Fellow award winners:
Melanie Perreault, Master of Fine Arts in Open Media at Concordia
TRU BFA’10, Faculty project supervisors- Doug Buis and Don Lawrence
Graduated from South Kamloops Secondary, 2004

Maxine Crawford, Master of Arts in Experimental Psychology at UBC Okanagan
TRU BA’09-Psychology (honours) Faculty supervisors: Dr. Sandra Vermeulen, Dr. Catherine Ortner and Dr. Reid Webster

Eden Dovauo, Masters of History at SFU,
TRU BA’10, Faculty Supervisor, Dr. Tina Block
KamHigh, 1994

Brant Shapka, was unable to accept the SSHRC Scholarship due to the time limit on
the award and a conflict regarding the time he would be able to attend a graduate program.
TRU BBA’10 Economics, Faculty supervisor: Dr. Mohammad Mahbobi
NorKam Secondary School, 2005.