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Polytechnique Montréal launches the third edition of the Order of the White Rose

March 8, 2017 - Source : NEWS

Polytechnique Montréal will award a $30,000 scholarship to a woman engineering student in Canada who wishes to pursue her engineering studies in a graduate-level program.

The white rose, over the years, has come to symbolize Polytechnique Montréal’s remembrance activities marking the December 6, 1989, tragedy. This emblem of peace has become the image for annual events held since December 6, 2014, the day of the 25th anniversary of the drama. With this in mind, and in tribute to the victims, the wounded, the faculty members and the employees and students who were at the heart of the tragedy, Polytechnique created in 2015 the Order of the White Rose scholarship.

This scholarship is awarded annually by the Polytechnique Montréal administration to a woman engineering student who wishes to pursue her passion for engineering by enrolling in a graduate program – master’s or doctoral level - at the institution of her choice, in Canada or elsewhere in the world.

For a third year, a call for applications has been launched at Canadian universities that offer engineering programs. The name of the winner of the Order of the White Rose will be announced in December 2017.

Inspiring ambassadors

“I am truly touched that the Order of the White Rose is a scholarship created in honour of my sisters, whose right to practise the wonderful profession of engineering was taken away from them,” said Nathalie Provost, ‘Godmother’ of the Order of the White Rose. “In addition to honouring their memory, the scholarship is a helping hand extended to the next generation, and will enable a young woman to go a step further in fulfilling her dream of becoming an engineer.”

“If I were a young student receiving the Order of the White Rose, I would feel privileged to be able to perpetuate the legacy of women engineers and to add my contribution to our society’s scientific heritage. I know that the scholarship winner will feel this pride,” added Michèle Thibodeau-DeGuire, the first woman to graduate in civil engineering from Polytechnique Montréal in 1963 and the first woman to hold the position of Chair of the Board of Directors of the Corporation de l’École Polytechnique de Montréal.

A prestigious jury 

The selection jury for the Order of the White Rose, to be chaired once again this year by Ms. Thibodeau-DeGuire, comprises outstanding people in Canadian higher education:

  • Cristina Amon, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering of the University of Toronto;
  • Elizabeth Cannon, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calgary;
  • Patrik Doucet, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering of Université de Sherbrooke;
  • Suzanne Fortier, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University;
  • Joshua Leon, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering of Dalhousie University; and
  • Pearl Sullivan, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Waterloo.

The recipients of the Order of the White Rose 

Last December, Polytechnique Montréal awarded the second Order of the White Rose scholarship to Liane Bernstein, a physics engineering graduate from Polytechnique Montréal. Ms. Bernstein is pursuing her doctoral studies at The Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Liane Bernstein and Nathalie Provost.

In November 2015, Polytechnique Montréal awarded the first Order of the White Rose scholarship to Tara Gholami, a mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Calgary. This scholarship allowed Ms. Gholami to pursue her mechanical engineering studies at Stanford University in California.

Application procedure

All Canadian engineering schools and faculties received the tools they need to launch the competition in their institution. They will have until September 1, 2017, to submit the application portfolio of the finalist chosen to represent their institution to the Order of the White Rose scholarship selection committee.

Students interested in this scholarship must find out from their institution (where they completed their bachelor's degree) which department is responsible for evaluating application portfolios and the deadline for applying. The institution is responsible for organizing the internal competition and for sending only the finalist’s portfolio to the Polytechnique selection committee.

To learn more

Application conditions on the Order of the White Rose website
Profile of Liane Bernstein, 2016 recipient of the Order of the White Rose scholarship
Profile of Tara Gholami, 2015 recipient of the Order of the White Rose scholarship 

Suggested Reading

December 5, 2016
NEWS

Liane Bernstein: Second Recipient of the Order of the White Rose Scholarship

November 25, 2015
NEWS

Tara Gholami is the first recipient of the Order of the White Rose