Background

Introduction:
The Government of Canada's Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS) program aims to attract and retain world-class doctoral students by supporting students who demonstrate both leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and engineering and health.

Text Slide:
"If Canada is to attain the greatness worthy of it, each of us must say, 'I ask only to serve.'"
Major General The Right Honourable Georges Philias Vanier (1888-1967)

Byline:
Keena Trowell
Vanier scholar 2017McGill University
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

Keena Trowell:
The first people? Right away, I called my parents. We talk every Sunday, so, of course, me calling on a Friday afternoon, my mom said: “What’s wrong?” And I said: “Nothing Mom. I have the best news.” And I told her. I mean my parents have been so supportive of me, my entire life. And I don’t think a lot of parents would have been happy if their daughter had said, you know, ten years into one career, I’m going to quit and start all over, but my parents were very supportive, and so, being able to call them and tell them that I won this amazing scholarship was... It’s definitely been a highlight of my life.

Byline:
Emily Bremer
Vanier scholar 2016
McMaster University
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

Emily Bremer:
The thing with Vanier that I find really nice is that it allows me to really focus on my research without the added stress of worrying about everything else in life, and other financial pressures and even academic career pressures. It has kind of enabled me to relax and kind of gain that extra confidence in myself that there are external agencies and people recognizing the merit that I do have and my research capability and potential and it allows me also to you know focus in and dedicate my time to my research rather than being stressed about you know working extra jobs or worrying about anything else like that, that's external to the research that I do.

Byline:
Tyrone Hall
Vanier scholar 2017
York University
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

Tyrone Hall:
Vanier opened up some tremendous opportunities for me and the research that I want to do. I came into graduate studies with all sorts of ambitious projects in mind and it would have been almost impossible to pursue a four-country project, running around various villages in different parts of the world without having the sort of substantial support that Vanier gives.

Emily Bremer:
I've always, since I got into research, in my undergrad, as soon as I started doing it, I really fell in love with the research and figured, from undergrad, I wanted to do a masters and PhD and move that into a post-doc and hopefully an academic position at a research-intensive university. 

Tyrone Hall:
It was a huge commitment. I’m happy I made that commitment, I’m happy I didn’t let the sort of rigour that it demands throw me off. You’re supposed to be engaged by that sort of thing. And it’s a great way to think about what you want to do for your research way ahead of time.

Keena Trowell:
Everybody I asked to write a letter, they were thrilled to do it. These people who have supported you in the past, they only want to see you succeed. And so they're happy to write these letters for you. Yes, absolutely I would say go for it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Text Slide: Position yourself as a research leader in Canada